

a^r^'^ ^ya^c-r/r^^^ 



HISTORY 



OP 



WAYNE COUNTY, 

II^DIANA, 

FROM ITS FIEST SETTLEMENT TO THE PRESENT TIME; 

WITH Niril£BOVB 

Biographical and Family Sketches. 



Bt ANDREW W. YOUNG, 

Abtbob o» " SCIENCE OP GOVERNMENT," "AMERICAN STATESMAN," "NATIONAL ECONOMY," Etc. 



Embellibbxd with upwards of Fifty Poktbaits of Citizens, 
AND Views or Bcildings. 



CINCINNATI: 

KOBERT CLARKE & CO., Pbint. 
1872. 



r's?"^- 



INTRODUCTION. 



More than two years ago, I engaged to revise the manu- 
script of a history of "Wayne county for publication. After 
several months' labor had been bestowed on the revision, 
the proprietor concluded to relinquish the enterprise. At 
the solicitation of a number of honorable gentlemen, who 
were desirous that a history of the county should be writ- 
ten, and who expressed the belief that this desire was gen- 
eral, I consented to undertake the publication on my own 
responsibility. 

But of the material in my hands, little related to any part 
of the county beyond the limits of Wayne township. Be- 
lieving that nothing short of a regular and well-arranged his- 
tory of every township would meet the f^eneral expectation, 
it was deemed necessary to alter the plan of the work, find to 
commence anew the collection of material. For this pur- 
pose, every township was visited in person, in order to avail 
myself of the most reliable sources of information. But in 
this work a serious difficulty was soon met. The statements 
of different persons were widely at variance. The con- 
fident assertions of some were contradicted by others; and 
important events were left in uncertainty. Hence it became 
necessary to visit many persons in difierent, and often distant 
parts of the township, to determine doubtful points. 

ISTor was a single journey to every township sufficient. 
With a view to the nearest approach to accuracy, the county 
was traversed a number of times. And to remove all 



IV INTRODUCTION. 

remaining doubts, these numerous visits to the townships 
were supplemented by a large amount of correspondence 
with their most reliable citizens. Yet, necessarily depending 
upon hundreds of fallible memories, it would be no marvel 
if some inaccuracies were discovered. In several instances 
informants have corrected their own statements made with 
great assurance. Hence, it need not be thought strange if 
some of the best authenticated facts shall be disputed. On 
this subject, I only add, that if, with all the pains taken to 
insure a correct history, the object has not been attained, it 
may confidently be pronounced unattainable. Every reason- 
able effort has been made to carry out the origiual purpose 
of producing a history that should " fulfill the public expecta- 
tion, and reflect credit upon the county," 

The foregoing observations will account, in great part, for 
the unexpected delay in the issue of the work. For this de- 
lay, the public will find ample satisfaction in the extra matter 
which it contains. By an economical use of space, and the 
addition of about sixty extra pages, subscribers will receive 
twenty per cent, more matter than was promised. A history 
of the county migl't ^ave been issued earlier; but I could not 
conscientioa.sly otter the public a work that was not satisfac- 
tory to myself, and presumed its patrons would rather be 
served a few months later with a good book, than earlier with 
an indifl^'erent one. 

In another particular they will be more than satisfied. 
Although no definite number of embellishments was prom- 
ised, the highest expectations have been far exceeded. 
Instead of twenty, the number which, it was hoped, might be 
obtained, the patrons of the work are presented with ffty 
portraits of present and former citizens of this county. Of 
these, ten were engraved on steel, and forty are lithographs, 
of which four represent the worthy wives of pioneers ; two 
of whom — one in her 84th year, the other nearly her equal in 



INTRODUCTION. V 

years — are yet living. These portraits, with the views of 
several buildings, have cost upwards of twenty-jive hundred 
dollars. 

That the work will escape a rigid criticism, is hardly to be 
expected. Matter which some may appreciate, others will 
consider of minor importance. Some will read with little 
interest the adventures and experience of the early settlers, 
with which they are already familiar. They should bear in 
mind, that portions of the work are written not so much for 
the present generation, as for the generations which are to 
follow. Many remember with what eagerness they listened 
to the tales of pioneer life from the lips of their ancestors. 
Before the present generation shall have passed away, not an 
individual will remain to relate the experiences of the first 
settlers, which have so deeply interested us. This interest 
will not abate with the lapse of time. The loritten narrative 
of incidents of " life in the woods," will be no less acceptable 
to those who come after us, than was the oral relation to 
ourselves. 

Hence, to commemorate the events and occurrences of the 
past — to transmit to our descendants a faithful history of our 
own time — is a duty. Many to whom such a liistQr shall be 
transmitted, will estimate its value at many times its original 
price. Without it, little will be known of early times, ex- 
cept what shall have come down to them by tradition, always 
imperfect and unreliable. 

Pioneer history, however, constitutes but the smaller por- 
tion of the work. The reader will find a great variety of 
other matter, civil, ecclesiastical, educational, commercial, 
agricultural, statistical, and biographical, which will render 
it convenient and useful as a book of reference, now and here- 
after. And the consideration should not be overlooked, that 
works of this kind will prove a source of valuable informa- 
tion to future historians. 



VI INTROB.UCTION. 

Some of the events recorded may "be considered unim- 
portant. As isolated facts, tkey may possess no great im- 
portance. A man's character is formed, in great part, by a 
combination of traits scarcely noticeable separate and alone. 
So the aggregate of many minor incidents constitutes a ma- 
terial part of the most valuable histories. Yet nothing has 
been admitted in this work, that was not designed to con- 
tribute to its interest or value. 

A general desire was early manifested by present settlers, 
to see the names of themselves or their ancestors associated 
with the history of the county. To gratify this desire — both 
natural and proper — the names of a large portion of the early 
and present settlers in every township have been given ; and 
others would have been added to the number, if the necessary 
facts had been more easily accessible. The omission is not 
justly attributable to a discriminating partiality. 

The attention of the reader is invited to the plan and 
arrangement of the work. Matter of general interest and 
application, embracing the early history of the state and of 
the county, has been first introduced, and is carefully ar- 
ranged under appropriate heads or titles. This greatly facil- 
itates the finding of historical facts. The general history of 
mc coauly is followed by a jp articular history of each of the 
several townships in alphabetical order. The sketch of each 
township embraces the names of early and present farmers, 
mechanics, business and professional men ; notices of its 
mills, manufactures, schools, and religious societies. This 
will aid in the search for matter relating to any of the town- 
ships. 

Biographical and genealogical sketches form a distinguish- 
ing feature of the work, and are annexed to the history of 
each township. Probably no part of the work will be more 
frequently referred to. Aware of the various estimates of 



INTRODUCTION. Vll 

human character, it was deemed prudent to avoid all eulogy 
of the living. I have not ventured beyond a simple state- 
ment of the more noticeable incidents and events of the life 
of any living subject. It should be here observed, that 
sketches of persons are not in all cases inserted in the his- 
tories of the townships in which they now reside ; several will 
be found in the histories of townships in which they passed 
an earlier and perhaps a more eventful period of their lives. 
To aid the reader in finding any sketch, an index of the 
names of persons thus noticed — about two hundred in num- 
ber — is inserted at the end of the work, with references to 
the pages on which they are to be found. 

To my numerous friends who have given me assurances of 
their interest in this history, I tender my grateful acknowl- 
edgments. All who have been applied to for information 
have cheerfully rendered the desired service. Those who 
have been chiefly consulted in the several townships, are the 
following : Abington — James Endsley, Joshua Dye, Nicholas 
Smith, George H. Smith, Andrew Hunt. Boston — Wm. 

Bulla, Joseph M. Bulla, Dennis Druley, Davenport, John 

J. Conley, Jacob Rinehart, James P. Burgess. Center — 
Oliver T. Jones, David Commons, Lewis Joae>, Joseph C. 
Eatliff, Jacob B. Julian, Joseph Holman. Clay — Daniel and 
John Bradbury, ISTathan and "Wm. C. Bond, Jonathan Bald- 
win, Wm. H. Bunnell, Lorenzo D. Personett, Thomas M. 
Kerr. Dalton — Charles Burroughs, Joseph Davis, John 
Davis, John Aaron Locke. Franklin — Wm. Addleman, Ed- 
ward Fisher, James White, Hosea C. Tillson. From a series 
of published letters of Mr. Tillson, on the early settlement 
of the Whitewater country, kindly loaned to me, several- 
interesting reminiscences of pioneer life have been appro- 
priated. Green — Joseph and Allen Lewis, Charles B. Ballin- 
ger, Jesse Gates, Ezekiel Johnson ; also, John Green, of 



VIU INTRODUCTION. 

"Wayue, and Samuel K. Boyd, of Centerville, both early set- 
tlers of Green. Harrison — Isaac N. Beard ; also, S. K. Boyd 
and A. M. Bradbury, early, though not present residents of the 
township. Jackson — Benj. Conklin, Gen. S. Meredith, Sam- 
uel Morris, Dr. Samuel S. Boyd, Jacob Custer, Axum S. 
Elliott, Jacob Vore, Nathan S. Hawkins, Dr. Lemuel R. 
Johnson, David N. Berg, John I. Underwood, Henry H. 
Bruce. Jefferson — ^"ehemiah Cheeseman, Wm. C. Bowen, 
"Wm. Stonebraker, David Bowman, Samuel Eiler, Andress S. 
"Wifirffins, Isaac A. Pierce. New Garden — William and Hiram 
Hough, George Shugart, Luke Thomas, Harvey Davis, Dr. 
Timothy W. Taylor. Perry — John Osborn, John M. Will- 
iams, Thomas Marshall, Henry Hollingsworth, Ira H. Hutch- 
ins. Washington — Othniel Beeson, Charles H. Moore, Charles 
N. McGrew, James Callaway, Dr. Joel Pennington, John 
Zell, Isaac Doddridge. Wayne — Hugh Mofiitt, Nathan Haw- 
kins, Jeremiah Cox, Enoch Railsback, Benj. Hill, Daniel P. 
Wiggins, Achilles Williams, Jeremiah Hadley, Cornelius 
Ratliff, Miles J. Shinn, Lewis Burk, James M. Starr. Im- 
portant matter, also, has been obtained from the Memoir of 
Judge Hoover, Dr. Plummer's Historical Sketch, and the 
manuscripts of J. M. Wasf-on, before referred to as the orig- 
mator of the history. Special acknowledgments are also 
due to Mr. John C. Macpherson for his valued contribution 
of the "War History," which will stand as an enduring 
tribute to the patriotism of the citizens of Wayne county. 
The editors of the newspapers of Richmond are also entitled 
to a grateful recognition for ready and frequent access to the 
files of their journals. 

Lastly, I congratulate myself on the termination of my 
arduous and protracted labors. Of the difficulties and per- 
plexities which have attended them, no one else can form 
even an approximate estimate. More "midnight oil" v^as 
probably never consumed on any publication within a 



INTRODUCTION. IX 

similar period. If those for whom the labor has been per- 
formed shall be satisfied, my highest object shall have been 
attained. 

A. W. Y. 
Richmond, January, 1872. 



NOTE. 

A few errors, not discovered in season to admit of correc- 
tion where they occur, are duly corrected on page 454. 



CONTENTS. 



Preliminary History. 

Discovery and settlement of America, 17. Indian border warfare, 18. 
Western lands ceded to the general government; North-western 
Territory formed, 19. Gen. St. Clair apjjointed governor; his acts, 
20. Treaties of peace with the Indians; acquisition of territory; 
Wayne appointed governor, 21, 22. Division of the North-western 
Territory; Gen. Harrison appointed governor, and negotiates treaties; 
slavery in the territory, 23, 24. Division of Louisiana; first general 
assembly, 24, 25. Division of Indiana; its government, admission 
as a state, and its boundaries, 25, 26. 

Settlement op Wayne County. 

Territory of the county, 26. Rue and Holman settlement; the Hoover 
and Richmond settlements, 28, 29. Increase of immigration, 29-32. 
Log cabins, description of, and their furniture, 35, 36. 

Early Labors, Condition, and Customs op the Settlers. 

Manner of clearing land, 37-9. Fare of the early settlers ; difficulty of 
getting bread; corn graters, 39-42. Various kinds of bread, and 
other food, 42, 43. Injury to corn fields, 44. Native pastures; wood 
ranges; hog and deer hunting, 44-6. Wild animals; wolf trapping 
and wolf bounties; sheep-killing dogs; porcupines, 46-9. Early 
cooking, 49, 50. Early tillage ; the pioneer plow and harrow ; seed- 
ing, harvesting, threshing, and cleaning wheat, 51-3. Corn harvest- 
ing and corn huskings, 54, 55. Household manufactures ; flax 
culture; manufacture of linen cloth, 55, 56. Manufactures of wool; 
itinerant spinsters, 56, 57. Family dyeing and tailoring, 58. Early 
tanning and shoe making; anecdotes of ministers wearing boots, 59, 
60. Sugar, its manufacture and price, 61, 62. Early stores, and 
prices of goods and produce, 62-4. Reflections on pioneer life ; Mrs. 
Julian's letter, 66, 67. Education: early school-houses and schools, 
68-70. Religious societies and early meeting-houses, 71. Indian 
troubles; supposed causes of Indian hostility; cases of savage atroc- 
ity ; battle of Tippecanoe, 72-74. Forts and block-houses ; flight 
of settlers, 75, 76. Treaty of Greenville; imprisonment of Quakers, 
76. Condition of settlers after the war, 77. Prices of goods, pro- 
duce, and labor; old coins, and manner of reckoning, 78. Difficul- 
ties in paying for lands, 79. 



Xii CONTENTS. 

CIYIL HISTOKY. 

Formation and organization of Wayne county; county and township 
officers; first courts and jurors, 80. County seat; public buildings; 
removal of the county seat, and early taxation, 81-3. Acts of county 
commissioners: organization of townships; regulating innkeepers' 
charges, 83, 84. Removal of county business to Centerville, 85. 

Wayne County Official Register. 

Names and classification of county commissioners; board of justices, 86, 
87. List of judges, clerks, sheriffs, auditors, recorders, treasurers, 
and justices, 87-9. 

Newspapers. 

Newspapers at Richmond, 90-2; at Centerville, 92-4 ; at Cambridge City, 

257-9. 

Antislavery History.' 

Log convention, and its results, 94-6. Abolition movement : Lundy and 
Garrison; views of abolitionists; antislavery parties, 96-8. Rich- 
mond antislavery society, 98-100. Rescue of fugitives, 100-2. 

Temperance History. 

Drinking customs, 103. Temperance associations ; attempts at prohibi- 
tion, 104-6. 

Internal Improvements. 

Roads: National road; turnpikes, 107, 108. Canals, 108-10. Railroads, 

110, in. 

Agricultural Societies. 

First society; state board of agriculture, 111, 112. Cambridge City dis- 
trict agricultural society, 112, 113. Wayne county joint stock 
agricultural association; Richmond horticultural society, 112-14. 
Richmond industrial association, 410. 

Old Settlers' Meetings. 

Meeting at Centerville in 1869: Speeches of 0. P. Morton, Joseph Hol- 
man. Col. James Blake, John S. Newman, John Peelle, B. C. Hobbs, 
Col. Enoch Railsback, Jacob B. Julian, Noah W. Miner, 115-122. 
Exhibition of curiosities, 122, 123. 

Criminal Trials. 

Trial and execution of Henry Crist and Hampshire Pitt for murder, 
123-5. Whipping a legal penalty, 126. 

War History. 

War begun in South Carolina; public meetings and enlistments, 126-8. 
Relief of soldiers' families, 128-130. Calla for more troops; extra- 



CONTENTS. Xlll 

ordinary contributions, 130-3. Morgan invasion, 134. Large money 
contributions, and raising of more troops, 134-6. Last contribution; 
end of the war; assassination of President Lincoln, 136, 137. 

Population and Taxes. 

Population of the several townships and towns; property and taxes, 138, 
139. 

Post-offices and Postmasters. 

Lists of all post-offices and postmasters in the county, 140-3. 



TOWNSHIP HISTOEIES. 

Abington. 

Formation and early settlement of the township, 144-6; mills, ma- 
chinery, and merchants, 147; mechanics, 148, 450; physicians, 450. 
Religious societies ; laying out of the town, 148. Biographical and 
genealogical sketches, 148-150. 

Boston. 

Formation of the township, and early settlement, 151-5. Physicians, 
merchants, justices, 155. Mills and machinery, 155, 156. Religious 
societies; laying out of the town; F. and A. M., and T. 0. O. F. 
lodges, 156-8. Biographical and genealogical sketches, 158-160. 

Center. 

Formation and area of the township, and its early settlers, 161-5. Mills 
and machinery, blacksmiths, and tannery, 165, 166. Town of Cen- 
terville laid out, 166. Innkeepers, mechanics, merchants, physicians, 
and lawyers, 167-9. First national bank; machine shop and saw- 
mill; engine house and town hall, 169. Newspapers, 169, 170. Pub» 
lie school-house, 170. Religious societies, 170-3. Lodges, 173. 
Biographical and genealogical sketches, 173-194. 

Clay. 

Formation of the township, and early settlement, 195-9. Mills and ma- 
chinery, blacksmiths, merchants, physicians, justices, 199, 200. 
Religious societies, 200, 201. Town of Washington laid out; block- 
houses, 201. Lodges, 201, 202. Biographical and genealogical 
sketches, 202-4. 

Dalton. 

Township formed, and its settlement, 204-7. Tannery, mills, 207. Mer- 
chants and physicians, 207, 208. Woolen mills; school-house; re- 
ligious societies, 208, 209. Towns of Dalton and Franklin ; justices, 
209. Biographical and genealogical sketches, 210-12. 



XIV CONTENTS. 



Franklin. 



Township formed ; its settlement, 211-14. Mills, merchants, physicians, 
215, 216. Religious societies, academy, 216, 217. Towns of Hills- 
borough and Bethel, 217. Biographical and genealogical sketches, 
217-221. 

Green. 

Formation and settlement of the township, 221-4. Mechanics, mills, 
merchants, physicians, justices, members of legislature, 224, 225. 
Eeligious societies, 225-7; lodges, 226-7. Town of Williamsburg, 
227. Biographical and genealogical sketches, 227-231, 

Harrison, 

Township formed, and its settlement, 231-5. Early schools, mechanics, 
mills, 234, 235. Town of Jacksonburg; its mechanics, physicians, 
merchants, tanners, 235, 236. Religious societies, 236, 237. Bio- 
graphical and genealogical sketches, 237-242. 

Jackson, 

Formation and description of the township ; settlement of the east part, 
243, 244. Town of East Germantown ; its physicians, inns, mer- 
chants, blacksmiths, plow manufactory, 244-6. Religious societies, 
246, 247. Settlement about Cambridge; mills and machinery, 247, 
248. Vandalia and East Cambridge, 248. Cambridge City ; its set- 
tlement and growth, 248, 249; its mei'chants, mechanics, physicians, 
lawyers, bank, public hall, 249-251. Manufactures: car manufac- 
turing company, Cambridge City manufacturing company, flax-mill, 
marble works, 251, 252. Flower and plant nursery, 253. Schools 
and religious societies, 253-5. Lodges, 255-7. Newspapers, 257-9, 
Settlement of the west and north parts of the township; school, 
and religious societies, 261, 262. Town of Dublin; its merchants, 
physicians, tavern, schools, mechanics, 262, 263. Mills and ma- 
chinery ; Wayne Agricultural Works, 264. Justices ; temperance ; 
religious societies, 265, 266. Biographical and genealogical sketches, 
266-272. 

Jefferson, 

Formation and settlement, 273-8. Mills, mechanics, physicians, mer- 
chants, lawyers, justices, representatives, 278-280. Ilagerstown laid 
out, 280. Religious societies, academy, first temperance society and 
Sabbath school, 280-4. Biographical and genealogical sketches, 284-9. 

New Garden. 

Township formed, and its settlement, 289-293. Mills and machinery ; 
mechanics, merchants, physicians, 293-5. Schools ; religious socie- 
ties, temperance and abolition, 295-7. Shooting of an Indian; Shu- 
gart and Harris, and tlie Indian alarms, 298. Town of Newport laid 
out; lodges, 298. Biographical and genealogical sketches, 299-304. 



contents. xt 

Perry. 

Formation and settlement of township, 304-8. Mills and machinery, 
308. Merchants, tanners, physicians, blacksmiths, 309. Religious 
societies, schools, 309-12. Economy laid out; justices, 312. Bio- 
graphical and genealogical sketches, 312, 313. 

"Washington. 

Formation and settlement, 314-320. Grist-mills, saw-mills, 320, 321. 
Carding and fulling mills, Milton Woolen Mills, Hoosier Drill Man- 
ufactory, merchants, physicians, mechanics, 322, 323. Religious 
societies, 323, 324. Town of Milton, 325. Biographical and genealog- 
ical sketches, 325-331. 

Wayne. 

Formation of the township, 321. Names and residences of settlers, 
332-6. Biographical and genealogical sketches, 337-358, 

ElCHMOND. 

Early history of the town; borough and city governments, 359, 360. 
Charles W. Starr's purchase ; naming of the town, 361. Early mer- 
chants, innkeepers, 362-8. Mechanics: blacksmiths, carpenters, 
cabinet-makers, 368-370; tailors, silversmiths, chair-makers, 370-2; 
hatters, saddlers and harness-makers, tanners, shoemakers, 372-4; 
wagon-makers, potters, 374, 375. Miscellaneous, 375, 376. Phy- 
sicians, lawyers, 377, 378. Manufactures and trade of Richmond : 
. Gaar machine works; Robinson machine works, 379, 380. Quaker 
City works. Union machine works, Richmond mill works, 380-2. 
Stove foundry ; Richmond school furniture works ; sash, door, blind, 
and school furniture works ; burial case manufactory, 382-4. Em- 
pire steel plow factory ; Richmond plow works, 384, 385. Carriage 
and carriage wheel manufactories; malleable iron works; cutlery 
manufactory, 385, 386. Woolen manufacture : Richmond woolen mills, 
Mt. Vernon woolen mill, Fleecy Dale woolen factory, 387, 388. Rich- 
mond knitting factory ; cotton factory ; Richmond loom works and 
school furniture, 388, 389. Paper mills; linseed oil mill; flouring 
mills, 389, 390. Wholesale trade : Groceries, dry goods, 390; drugs 
and medicines, queensware, iron stores, woolen machinery, 391. 
Banks, 392-7. Schools, 397-9. Religious societies, 399-408. Benev- 
olent societies, 408. Building associations, 409. Richmond Indus- 
trial association, 410. Lodges, 441. Odd Fellows' hall, 444. Public 
halls, 370, 445. Lyceum hall, 445. 

SUPPLEMENT. 

Retail merchants, 446, 447. Charter Oak pork house, 447. Gas works, 
448. Planing mill, steam bakery, 448. Hotels, 449. Cascade garden 
and nursery ; Sylvan Heights ; Medical and Surgical Sanitarium, 449. 

Omissions in Township Histories supplied, and Corrections, . . . 450-2 



EMBELLISHMENTS. 







PORTRAITS. 




1. 


John Barnes, . 


. 337 


26. Jonathan Hough, . 


299 


2. 


Isaac N. Beard, 


238 


27. Mary Hunt, 


. 149 


3. 


John Beard. 


. 232 


28. George W. Julian, . 


185 


4. 


John Beard, . 


325 


29. Rebecca Julian, 


. 66 


5. 


Mary Beard, 


. 237 


30. John Kepler, 


241 


6. 


Dorcas Beeson, 


327 


31. John King, 


. 187 


7. 


Othniel Beeson, 


. 328 


32. Joseph Lewis, 


229 


8. 


Thomas W. Bennett, 


411 


33. Jeremy Mansur, 


. 188 


9. 


Jesse Bond, 


. 196 


34. Benjamin L. Martin, 


351 


10. 


William Bulla, 


339 


35. John Mason, 


. 286 


n. 


Lewis Burk, 


. 413 


36. Solomon Meredith, 


270 


12. 


Elijah Coffin, . 


394 


37. HughMoffitt, . 


. 31 


13. 


David Commons, 


. 176 


38. Robert Morrisson, 


32 


14. 


Daniel B. Crawford, 


416 


39. Oliver P. Morton, . 


. 189 


15. 


John Finley, 


. 417 


40. John S. Newman, . 


190 


16. 


Valentine Foland, 


203 


41. William Parry, . 


. 353 


17. 


Abraham Gaar, . 


. 160 


42. Oran Perry, . 


427 


18. 


Jonas Gaar, . 


418 


43. James M. Poe, . 


. 430 


19. 


John Green, 


. 228 


44. Enoch Railsback, . 


120 


20. 


Samuel Hannah, . 


178 


45. Cornelius Ratliff, 


. 355 


21. 


Nathan Hawkins, 


. 342 


46. Daniel Reid, . 


433 


22. 


David P. Holloway, 


421 


47. John Sailor, 


. 360 


23. 


Joseph Holman, 


. 95 


48. John Stigleman, . . 


193 


24. 


David Hoover, frontispi 


ece. 


49. Henry Study, . 


. 231 


25. 


Henry Hoover, 


348 


50. Francis Thomas, . 


303 




51. Daniel I 


\ Wiggin 


s, . . . 438 






VIEW 


^S OF 


BUILDINGS. 




Milton Public School-house 


, . 324 


1 Morrisson Library, 


, 424 




Odd Fellow 


s' Hall. 


. 444 





HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 



PRELIMINARY HISTORY. 

America was discovered Ij}- Columbus in 1492. Efforts 
were early made by Spain, Frauce, and England to establish 
colonies in ^NTorth America. More, however, than a century 
elapsed before many permanent settlements were made. In 
1568, the Spaniards established a small colony in Florida. 
The French, in 1605, planted a small colony in I^Tova Scotia, 
and in 1608 founded the city of Quebec. In 1607, the 
English made a settlement at Jamestown in Virginia. ISTew 
York was settled by the Dutch in 1614. In 1620, the " Pil- 
grim Fathers " landed on Pl3nnouth Rock, and commenced 
the settlement of New England. 

The tract of country called l^ew England, granted in 1620 
hy James I., king of England, to the Plymouth Company, 
extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. This grant 
was substantially confirmed by William and Mary, in 1691, 
by a second charter specifying the territory granted as Ij'ing 
between 42 deg. 5 min. and 44 deg. 15 min. north latitude. 
Previously, however, to the latter grant, Charles I. [1663] 
granted to the duke of Y'ork and Albany the province of 
New York extending to the Canada line; its extent west- 
ward was not definitely stated. Under these conflicting 
grants, disputes arose between some of the states as to the 
extent of their respective territorial rights and jurisdiction. 
This controversy was not settled until several years after the 
Kevolution. 

The French colonists extended their settlements along the 
shores of the St. Lawrence and the great lakes westward as 
far as to Lake Superior, and established trading posts at 



18 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

various places, and missionary stations among seA^eral tribes 
of Indians. And for the protection of tlie fur trade, small 
stockade forts were erected. France also, on discoveries by 
exploring parties of lier subjects, based a claim to all the 
countr}^ lying between jSTew Mexico and Canada in the valleys 
of the Mississippi and its tributaries, on both sides of that 
river. 

Protestant England and Catholic France were rivals in 
acquiring and colonizing territory, establishing trade with 
the Indians, and propagating among them their respective 
systems of religion. One of the reasons assigned by Cotton 
Mather in his Ecclesiastical History of Xew England, for 
planting British colonies in this country was, that it would 
" be a service unto the church of great consequence to carry 
the gospel into those parts of the world, and raise a bulwark 
against the kingdom of Anti-Christ which the Jesuits labor 
to rear up in all parts of the world." 

France, in the prosecution of her designs, early made set- 
tlements and established trading posts, between the Lakes 
and the Gulf of Mexico ; one of which was Post Yincennes, 
in the western border of the present state of Indiana. 

At an early period of the Revolutionary war, eftbrts were 
made by the British to incite the Indians to carry on a border 
warfare against the settlers on the frontiers of the United 
States. For the defense of the frontiers. Congress, in 1777, 
ordered a military force to be raised, to the command of 
which Colonel [afterward General] George R. Clark was ap- 
pointed. He led an expedition against the ancient French 
settlements about Kaskaskia and Post Vincennes. The 
French inhabitants at Kaskaskia were terror-stricken ; and 
being treated by Col. Clark with great generosity and kind- 
ness, and being informed that an alliance had been formed 
between France and the United States, they took the oath of 
allegiance to the State of Virginia, and a company of French 
militia joined our forces. Through much diiliculty the United 
States army reached Post Vincennes, where the British com- 
mandant, Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton, was brought to 
terms of capitulation prescribed by Col. Clark, who took the 
British garrison as prisoners of war. After several successes 



PRELIMINARY HISTORY. 19 

3f Geu. Clark, which had in a measure allayed the fears of 
:he whites, emigration from Virginia to Kentucky increased, 
riiis warfare between some of the Indian tribes and the white 
settlers on the borders of the Ohio river, continued during 
the war. l^ov did it entirely cease until the forces of those 
:ribes were defeated by Wayne's army in 1794. 

The conflictintj claims of states under the grants of the 
3rown of Great Britain to lands in the jSTorth-west, east of 
:he Mississippi, has been alluded to. These states were l^ew 
i^ork, Virginia, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. In com- 
Dliance with a suggestion to that effect, and a request of 
uongress, these states successively passed acts to cede to the 
oreueral Government their western lands as a fund to aid in 
paying the debt incurred during the Revolutionary war. The 
iates of these several acts the writer has not at hand. Their 
ileeds of cession were respectively dated as follows : That of 
N"ew York, March 1, 1781 ; that of Virginia, March 1, 1784; 
that of Massachusetts, April 19, 1785 ; and Connecticut, 
September 13, 1786, transferred her claim, reserving about 
3,000,000 acres in the north-east part of the state. This tract 
WHS called the "Western Reserve of Connecticut." On the 
30th of May, 1800, the jurisdictional claims of that state to 
this Reserve were surrendered to the United States. 

In 1787, by an ordinance of the Old Congress, was formed 
the ITorth- western Territory, embracing the territory north- 
ivest of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi, from which have 
since been formed the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michi- 
gan, and Wisconsin. This ordinance was reported by Nathan 
Dane, of Massachusetts, and contained that celebrated pro- 
v'iso, forever prohibiting slavery in the territory or in the 
states which should be formed from it. The powers of 
o'overnment, legislative, executive, and judicial, were, by 
this ordinance, vested in a governor and three judges, who, 
with a secretary, were to be appointed by Congress ; the 
governor for three years, the judges during good behavior. 
The laws of the territory were to be such laws of the original 
states as the governor and judges should think proper to 
idopt, and were to be in force until disapproved by Congress. 
When the territory should contain five thousand free male 



20 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

inhabitants of full age, there was to be a legislature to con- 
sist of two branches ; a house of representatives, the members 
to be chosen from the several counties or townships for two 
years, and a legislative council of live persons who were to 
hold their offices for five years, and to be appointed by Con- 
gress out of ten persons previously nominated by the house 
of representatives of the territory. All laws were required 
to be consistent with the ordinance, and to have the assent 
of the governor. 

In October, 1787, Gen. Arthur St. Clair was chosen by 
Consrress governor of the territorv, though he does not 
appear to have entered on the duties of his office until the 
next year. He arrived at Marietta, Ohio, in July, 1788, and 
began to organize the government according to the provisions 
of the ordinance of 1787 ; and, with the judges of the general 
court, adopted sundry laws. 

The most unpleasant duties of Governor St. Clair were 
imposed upon him by the hostilities of the Indians, 
especially the hostilities between the Indians on the 
"Wabash and the people of Kentucky. Which was the 
aggressive party, it was not easy to determine. Gen. Knox, 
Secretary of War, in a report to the President of the United 
States, says: " The injuries and murders have been so recip- 
rocal, that it would be a point of critical investigation to 
know on which side they have been the greatest." Gen. St. 
Clair was requested by President Washington to ascertain 
whether peace on reasonable terms could be established with 
the Wabash and Illinois Indians ; and he was authorized, if 
necessary for the protection of the people on the frontiers of 
Pennsylvania and Virginia, to raise a militia force in the 
nearest counties in those states, to act with the United States 
troops for that purpose. Gov. St. Clair was also instructed 
" to execute the orders of the .late Congress respecting the 
inhabitants at Post Vincennes, and at the Kaskaskias, and 
the other villages on the Mississippi, as it was important that 
the said inhabitants should, as soon as possible, possess the 
lands to which they were entitled, by some known and fixed 
principles." 

Pursuant to these instructions, about the first of January, 



PRELIMINARY HISTORY. 21 

1790, the Governor, with the Judges of the Supreme Court of 
the territory, descended the Ohio from Marietta to Fort Wash- 
ington, at Losantiville, wliere the Governor laid out the county 
of Hamilton, and appointed officers for the administration of 
justice therein. He also induced the proprietors of the little 
village to change its name to Cincinnati. [Dillon.'] The Gov- 
ernor, with AVintlirop Sargeut, Secretary of tlie Territory, 
];)roceeded to the place of his destination. On his arrival at 
Kaskaskia, he laid out the county of St. Clair, and appointed 
officers for the same. He also examined many claims and 
title deeds to lands, and confirmed those which were found 
authentic. 

The people of the Wabash and Illinois countries had, from 
various causes, among which was the destruction of crops by 
floods, been reduced to a state of suffering, almost of starva- 
tion. By an act of the Old Congress, lands previously in their 
possession were to be surveyed at their own expense. Many, 
unable to pay for the surveys, memorialized the Governor, 
asking his protection, soliciting him "to lay their dejdorable 
situation before Congress;" urging that, "in their humble 
opinion, the expense of the survey ought to be borne by Con- 
gress, for whom alone it is useful." 

The Indians having manifested no disposition to make a 
treaty of peace with the United States, or cease hostilities, the 
Governor returned with a view to fitting out an expedition 
against the hostile Indians. Secretary Sargent, now acting as 
governor, went from Kaskaskia to Post Yincennes, and laid 
out the county of Knox, then and for several years the only 
county within the present bounds of this state, and settled the 
claims of the inhabitants to their lands. 

Depredations and murders having been committed along the 
Ohio, from its mouth to the neighborhood of Pittsburg, the 
government found it necessary to raise forces to protect the 
navigation of that river, and the inhabitants along its borders, 
as well as those in the Wabash country. The particulars of 
the wars which ensued, can not be^iven in this work. Suffice 
it to say, that, in September, 1792, a treaty of peace was made 
at Vincennes with the Illinois and Wabash tribes, by which 
the United States guarantied to them all the lands to which 



22 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

they had a just clahn, and protection in the enjoyment of their 
just rights. 

In the summer of 1793, a long council was held on Detroit 
river to negotiate peace with the north-western Indians, but 
without success. They claimed the right to all the lands lying 
north-west of the Ohio river, denying the validity of the treaty 
by virtue of which the lands were claimed by the United 
States. They said the commissioners of the United States 
negotiating the treaty had been informed that, to be binding, 
it must be signed by a general council ; yet they persisted in 
collectings a few chiefs of two or three nations onlv out of some 
fifteen, and held a treaty for the cession of an immense country. 

Overtures of peace having been rejected by the north-western 
Indians, preparations were made for an expedition against the 
Indians. Gen. St; Clair having resigned the office of Major- 
General in 1791, he was succeeded by General Anthony Wayne, 
who now had command of the forces. The campaign was 
successful. The decisive battle was fought on the banks of 
the Maumee, on the 20th of August, 1794. During the fol- 
lowing winter, the Indians agreed to meet Gen. Wayne at 
Greenville in June, 1795, to negotiate a peace. Negotiations 
commenced the 16th of June; and articles of peace were duly 
signed by Gen. Wayne and the representatives of the several 
Indian tribes, on the 3d day of August, 1795. 

Amongst the lands ceded by this treaty, are the following, 
which are stated in Chamberlain's Indiana Gazetteer, pub- 
lished in 1850, to be at present a part of this state : " First, a 
tract lying south-east of a line from the mouth of Kentucky 
river, running north-east to Fort Recovery, near the head of 
the Wabash, and embracing the present counties of Dearborn, 
Ohio, and parts of Switzerland, Franklin, Union, and Wayne; 
and then various tracts at the head of the Maumee, the portage 
of the Wabash, and Ouiatenon. All claims to other lands 
within this state were, at that time, relinquished to the Indians, 
except the 150,000 acres granted to Clark's regiment, the 
French grants near Vinceunes, and other lands occupied by 
the French, or other whites, to which the Indian title had 
been extinguished." 

The tract first above mentioned as " embracing the present 



PRELIMINARY HISTORY. 23 

counties of Dearborn and Ohio, and parts of Switzerland, 
Franklin, Union, and Waj'ne," is the gore which constituted 
Dearborn prior to the formation of Waj^ne in 1810, and laid 
between the present west line of Ohio, and the west line of the 
tract ceded to the United States by the treaty of Greenville in 
1795 ; which latter line was also the eastern boundary of the 
Twelve Mile Purchase. It was provided, however, in the act 
of May, 1800, dividing the ISTorth-western Territory, that when 
tlie eastern division should be admitted into the Union as a 
state, its western boundary should be altered, iirobal)!}' with 
the view of establishing a boundary line running due north 
and south. Instead of beginning on the Ohio opposite the 
mouth of the Kentucky river, it was to begin at the mouth of 
the Great Miami, and run due north to Fort Recovery. When, 
in 1802, Ohio was admitted as a state into the Union, its west- 
ern boundary was made to conform to this provision. 

Pursuant to the act of Congress of May 7, 1800, " to divide 
the territory of the United States north-west of the Ohio into 
two separate governments," the eastern part retained its former 
name, and was composed of the present state of Oliio, a small 
part of Michigan, and a small part of Indiana ; [the " gore " de- 
scribed in the preceding paragraph.] The other district, called 
Indiana Territory, embraced all the region west of the former, 
east of the Mississippi, and between the Lakes and the Ohio 
river. 

The seat of government of Indiana Territory was fixed at 
Vincennes; and Gen. Wm. Henry Harrison was appointed 
governor. In January, 1801, he convened the judges of the 
territory at Vincennes for making and publishing laws and 
performing other acts for the government of the territory. 
The territorial judges held their first general court at Vincennes 
in March, 1801. 

From the year 1802 to 1805, inclusive, Gov. Harrison nego- 
tiated seven treaties with ten difl'erent tribes of north-western 
Indians, acquiring from these tribes about forty-six thousand 
square miles of territory. 

The state of Virginia having originally claimed these west- 
ern lands, immigrants from that state brought slaves with them, 
and held them as such. Although slavery was prohibited by 



24 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

the ordinance of 1787, it existed to some extent in Indiana 
territory when it was formed, tlie law not being strictly en- 
forced. Its effect was in some instances evaded by holding 
colored persons in servitude, for a term of years, by indentures 
and written contracts. Many were removed to slaveholding 
states, and to the west side of the Mississippi river. 

Acceding to the wishes of some of the inhabitants, Gov. 
Harrison, in 1802, called a convention of delegates from the 
several counties, the object of which was to take measures to 
petition Congress to suspend the operation of the prohibitory 
clause of the ordinance. Congress was petitioned, and reports 
in favor of such suspension for ten years were made at two or 
three successive sessions; but the measure failed. In 1804, 
Gov. Harrison, having been informed that certain indentured 
persons of color were about to be removed from the territory 
to be sold as slaves, issued a proclamation forbidding their 
removal, and calling upon the civil authorities to prevent it. 

In 1804, the territory of Louisiana purchased of France in 
1803, was divided into two territories; the south part consti- 
tuting the territory of Orleans, and the residue, lying north of 
the 33d degree of north latitude, the district of Louisiana. 
There being within this district but few inhabitanvs, and these 
chiefly residing along the river, in villages, of which the prin- 
cipal was St. Louis, the district was, for the purpose of 
government, placed under the jurisdiction of Indiana, then 
comprising all the original North-western Territory except the 
state of Ohio, which had been recently formed, [1802.] In 
March, 1805, this district was detached from Indiana, and 
organized as a separate territory. 

The first General Assembl}-, consisting of a House of Repre- 
sentatives and a Council of live, the latter appointed by the 
President, met at Vincennes, July 29, 1805. There were at 
that time live counties, sending, in all, seven representatives, 
as follows: Jesse B. Thomas, of Dearborn county; Davis 
Floyd, of Clark; Benjamin Parke and John Johnson, of Knox; 
Shadrach Bond and "VVm. Biggs, of St. Clair; and George 
Fisher, of Randolph. There had been six counties. Wayne 
county, embracing the principal part of Michigan, including 
Detroit, was, until the formation of the territory of Michigan 



PRELIMINARY HISTORY, 25 

m June, but one month previous to the meeting of the legis- 
hiture, a part of Indiana; and, it is presumed, elected mem- 
bers of this legislature in January preceding, but who were, 
by the division of the territory, prevented from taking seats. 

Among the subjects of legislation recommended by the gov- 
ernor, was the providing of a remedy for the evils resulting 
from the "vice of drunkenness among the Indians," which, 
he said, "spreads misery and desolation through the country, 
and threatens the annihilation of the whole race." The legis- 
lature, by joint ballot, elected as delegate to Congress, Benja- 
min Parke, a native of I^ew Jersey, who had emigrated from 
that state in 1801. 

The criminal code of 1807 contained some unusual provis- 
ions. Horse-stealing, with treason, murder, and arson, was 
made punishable by death. Whipping might be inflicted for 
burglary, robbery, larceny, hog-stealing, and bigamy, ^or 
did the early law-makers seem to underrate the importance of 
the observance of the tifth commandment. Children or serv- 
ants, for resistance or disobedience to the lawful commands of 
their parents or masters, might be sent by a justice of the peace 
to jail or the house of correction, there to remain until they 
should " humble themselves to the said parents' or masters' 
satisfaction." And for assaulting or striking a parent or mas- 
ter, they were liable to be " whipped not exceeding ten stripes." 

In 1805, the territory of Indiana, which had until then in- 
cluded the peninsula of Michigan, was divided by an act of 
Congress; the territory of Michigan was formed, and pro- 
vision made for its government. In 1808, Indiana territorj'' 
contained about 28,000 white inhabitants, of whom about 
11,000 lived westward of the river Wabash. B3' act of Con- 
gress, Feb. 3, 1809, Illinois territory was formed, including all 
the territory north-west of the present line of Indiana, and 
north to the Canada line. 

In 1809, [Feb. 27,] Congress granted to the people of Indi- 
ana territory the privilege of electing the members of the 
legislative council, and a territorial delegate to Congress. In 
1811, the elective fraucliise in the election of these officers 
was extended to all free white males 21 years of age, resident 



26 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

one year in the territoiy, and having paid a tax, county or 
territorial; and in 1814, to all white male freeholders. 

Indiana was admitted as a state into the Union in 1816; 
Illinois in 1818; Michigan in 1836; and in 1848, Wisconsin, 
the last of the five states to be formed from the North-western 
Territory. 

The state of Indiana is bounded on the east by the state of 
Ohio ; on the south, by the Ohio river from the mouth of the 
Great Miami to the mouth of the river Wabash ; on the west, 
by a line drawn along the middle of the Wabash from its 
mouth to a point where a due north line from the town of 
Vincennes would last touch the shore of the Wabash river ; 
and thence by a due north line until the same shall intersect 
an east and w^est line drawn through a point ten miles north 
of the southern extreme of lake Michigan; and on the north 
by the said east and west line until the same shall intersect 
the first meridian line which forms the western boundary of 
the state of Ohio. These boundaries include an area of 33,890 
square miles, lying between 37 deg. 47 miu. and 41 deg. 50 
min. north latitude, and between 7 deg. 45 min. and 11 deg. 
lono;itude west from Washino:ton. 



SETTLEMEI^T OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

The first settlements in the valleys of Whitewater within 
the limits of the present county of Wayne, were made in the 
vicinity of the site of the city of Richmond, then in the county 
of Dearborn, the county-seat of wdiich was at Lawrenceburg, 
on the Ohio river. Of the present territory of Wayne county, 
only that part which lies east of the Twelve Mile Purchase, 
was then the propert}' of the General Government, and offered 
for sale to settlers. This strip of land was, at the south line 
of the county, about 8J miles wide; at the north line, about 
41 miles; and on the Kational Road about 6f miles. The 
Twelve Mile Parchase was twelve miles wide, and extended 
from the Ohio river north to the bounds of the state. Its 
eastern and western lines were parallel, running from the river 
about 13 degrees east of a due north course ; the east line 
about 2} m. west of Richmond, running near or through the 



SETTLEMENT OF WAYNE COUNTY. 27 

old town of Salisbury ; the west line dividing Cambridge 
City near the west end of the town. This land was pur- 
cliased of the Indians in the latter part of 1809. It was not 
surveyed, however, and ready for sale, before 1811 ; though a 
few persons had previously settled on it. 

In the year 1805, the first settlement of white men on the 
banks of Whitewater was commenced, and the first rude 
cabin built. In the spring of that year, George Holman, 
Eicliard Rue, and Thomas McCoy, with their families from 
Kentucky, settled about two miles south of where Richmond 
now stands. Rue and Holman bad served under Gen. Clark 
in his Indian campaigns several years before the formation of 
the North-western Territory under the ordinance of 1787. 
Both had been captured by the Indians and held as prisoners 
about three years and a half. [An account of their captivity 
is elsewhere given.] Both also lived on the lands on which 
they settled, until their death, far advanced in age. Rue was 
the first justice of the peace in this part of the country. 

Holman and Rue selected and entered their lands late in 
1804, at Cincinnati, on their way home. Early in the winter 
they returned to build cabins for their families, bringing with 
them, on their horses, such tools as were necessary in that 
kind of architecture, and a few cooking utensils. Holman's 
two eldest sons, Joseph and William, then about 18 and 16 
years of age, accompanied their father to assist in this initi- 
atory pioneer labor. In a very few days, two cabins were 
ready for occupancy. Rue and Holman, leaving the boys to 
take care of themselves, started again for Kentucky to bring 
their families. 

On reaching their homes, they found two Pennsylvanians, 
who were in search of new land, and had brought their fam- 
ilies with them. They soon decided to accompany Rue and 
Holman ; and the four families, with their effects, consisting 
of clothing, provisions, tools, cooking utensils, &c. — all on 
pack-horses ; traveling with wagons so great a distance 
through an unbroken wilderness being impracticable. McCoy 
and Blunt selected their lands near those of their two friends. 
Thus was commenced the settlement of Wayne county. 

A few miles lower down, and near Elkhorn creek, the Ends- 



28 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

leys, the Coxes, and perliaps Hugh Cull, settled the same .year, 
[1805,] and were followed in 1806 and 1807 by Lazarus 
Whitehead, a Baptist minister, Aaron Martin, diaries Hunt, 
and their families; all of whom are elsewhere noticed. Cull 
was a Methodist minister, who lived where he first settled, 
until his death in 1862, at the age of 103 — some say, 105 
years. Shadrach Henderson also, in one of these years, set- 
tled 2 miles below Richmond, on the west side of the White- 
water, where one of the early saw-mills was built, near where 
Larsh's Houring-mill now stands. A family of the name of 
Lamb also settled a few miles below, near or on the Elkhorn. 
The next year after Holman and others settled as above 
stated, lauds were taken np where llichmond now stands, and 
on the west side .of AYhitewater. About the first of March, 
1806, David Hoover, then a 3'oung man, residing with his 
father in the Miami country in Ohio, with four others, in 
search of a place for making a settlement, took a section line 
some eight or ten miles north of Dayton, and traced it a dis- 
tance of more than thirty miles, through an unbroken forest, 
to the place where he afterward settled. He fancied he had 
found the Canaan his father had been seeking. His parents 
were of German descent, and members of the Society of 
Friends. They had emigrated from Pennsylvania to North 
Carolina, and thence to Miami, where they had temporarily 
located, until a permanent home could be selected. Young 
Hoover and his companions were supposed to be the first 
white men who explored the territory north of Richmond. 
They discovered many natural advantages, among which were 
the pure spring water issuing from the banks of the stream, 
with its prospective mill-sites, inexhaustible quarries of lime- 
stone, and a rich soil. Following the stream south a short 
distance, they found traps set; and near the west bank of the 
Whitewater nearly opposite Richmond, they saw some In- 
dians. From these Indians, who could speak broken English, 
they learned that white men had settled below on the east side 
of the stream. They made their way thither, and found the 
Holman, Rue, and McCoj'' families. After a brief rest, they 
started back for the Miami by a difierent route, and reported 
the finding of the "promised land." 



SETTLEMENT OF WAYNE COUNTY. 29 

In May or June followins:, the first entries were made. 
Andrew Hoover, father of David, entered several quarter sec- 
tions, including that which the latter had selected for himself 
on his first trip. John Smith entered on the south side of 
what is now Main street, cleared a small patch of ground, and 
built a cabin near the bluff. Jeremiah Cox purchased his 
quarter section late in the "summer, north of Main street, of 
Joseph Woodkirk, who had bought it of John Meek. Wood- 
kirk having made a small clearing and planted it with corn. 
Cox paid him for his improvement and corn. Andrew Hoover 
had a number of sons and daughters, who settled around him 
as tliey got married. David had taken a wife in Ohio before 
coming to the territory. But he did not occupy his log 
cabin until the last of March the next year, [1807.] Here, 
on the west bank of Middle Fork, he resided until his death, 
in 1866. 

The land in and about Richmond was settled chiefly by 
Friends from North Carolina ; some of them from that state 
direct, others after a brief residence in Ohio. As the Hoover 
family were the pioneers of these people, but for the discovery 
made here by young Hoover and his fellow adventurers, the 
Society of Friends would probably not have had the honor of 
being the first proprietors of the land on which Richmond 
stands, and of naming the city. Indeed, the Judge, in his " Me- 
moir," modestl}'' claims "the credit of having been the pioneer 
of the great bod}' of the Friends now to be found in this re- 
gion." 

Although the Hoovers had entered their lands in May or 
June, 1806, most of them did not bring their families until the 
spring of 1807. Jerry Cox says: "We Avere the first family 
of the Friends that settled within the limits of Wayne count3% 
But soon after, [the same year, 1806,] came John Smith and 
family, Elijah Wright, and Frederick Hoover. In the follow- 
ing fall, several of the Hoover family came out to build cab- 
ins and to sow turni[) seed. In the spring after, Andrew 
Hoover, Sen., David Hoover, and Wm. Bulla came. Some later 
in the spring came John Harvey and others not recollected." 

The spirit of emigration prevailed strongly in the Southern 
States, especially in IS'orth Carolina. The Friends had settled 



30 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

in that state before the adoption of the Constitution of the 
United States, which allowed the enslavement of the African 
race in this country. They were generally unfriendly to 
slavery : hence, probably, their desire, in great part, to find 
homes on better soil and in more congenial society. 

Soon after the families above mentioned, others of the Car- 
olina Friends began to arrive. Among those who settled in 
the vicinit}^ of Kichmond were, Jacob Meek, in 1806; Elijah 
Wright, in 1806 or 1807; Jesse Bond, 1807, on the farm where 
Earlham College now is; John Burgess, 1808; Valentine 
Pegg, 1809, 2 miles westerly from Richmond; John Town- 
send, (year not ascertained;) Cornelius Ratliff, 1810; John 
McLane, 1810; and about tlie same time came families of the 
names of Stewart, Evans, Gilbert, Thomas Roberts, and 
others. On East Pork also a settlement was commenced 
early. Joseph Wasson, a Revolutionary soldier, settled there 
in 1806, and Peter Fleming in 1807, both having entered 
their lands as early as 1805 ; Benjamin and Robert Hill, 1806 ; 
Ralph Wright and John Hawkins, 1807; John Morrow, 1808; 
John Charles, 1809; James and Peter Ireland, (year not as- 
certained.) With the exception of the Fleming, Wasson, and 
Ireland families, who were Presbyterians from Kentucky, the 
most or all of those named above, were Friends, and came 
from North Carolina. The names of the [»laces the}^ came 
from became stereotyped phrases. When asked from what 
part of that state they came, the common answer was, " Guil- 
ford county, near Clemens's Store ;" or " Beard's Hat Shop ;" 
or " Beep River Settlement of Friends;" or Dobson's Cross 
Roads." 

Besides those above mentioned, many others settled on East 
Fork, some about the same time, and some several years later; 
but the dates of their settlement are not ascertained. Among 
them were David Wasson, a son-in-law of Peter Fleming, 
afterward known as Judge Fleming, who had entered several 
hundred acres, on which he settled his children, reserving for 
himself a homestead, since known as the "Barnes farm," and 
the " Woods place," and now owned by John Brown adjoin- 
ing the state line. The farm early owned by his son, Samuel 
Fleming, and now by James Smelser, was a part of the Judge's 




sv 



.rO^^' 



A 



SETTLEMENT OF WAYNE COUNTY. 31 

purchase. Charles Moffitt, an early settler, lived on the south 
side of East Fork, near Kichniond, where he built a mill. He 
remained there until his decease, many years ago. Hugh 
Moffitt, a son, still resides near the homestead. A little above, 
Amos and John Hawkins settled early with their families; 
and a little further on, Wm. Ireland, long since deceased. 
Next, Benj. Hill, already mentioned, who remained there until 
his death, about forty years ago. His wife survived him until 
1867. Adjoining on the east was Joseph Wasson, before men- 
tioned. Nathaniel McCoy Wasson built a cabin, in 1809, on 
the homestead near the banks of East Fork; married, and 
lived there until his death, in 1864. Near by was John Gay, 
an early settler, known as Major Gay, who early sold his land 
to Jacob Crist, still living on the premises. John Drake, with 
his numerous grown up sons, settled early on their farms ad- 
joining the Ohio line. The Drakes were of the Baptist denomi- 
nation. Daring the prevalence of a malignant fever at an 
early period of the settlement on East Fork, a number of 
robust, middle aged men fell victims to it. Of this number 
were David and John Wasson. 

On the Ohio side were John AVasson, David Purviance and 
his sons, several families of the Irelands, and some others, in 
the vicinity of where New Paris now is. The Purviances, 
Adamses, and Irelands were from Kentucky, where David 
Purviance had been a member of the legislature, and made 
himself conspicuous by his opposition to slavery. After com- 
ing to Whitewater he became a preacher of a sect, called 
"New Lights," a body of dissenters from the Presbyterians. 
In the latter part of his life, he was a pioneer in the Anti- 
slavery movement. 

On Middle Fork, near its mouth, was Wm. J>ulla, an early 
settler and son-in-law of Andrew Hoover, Sen. He early 
built a saw-mill on his farm, near the site of Burson's oil-mill. 
He lived there until his decease, some years ago, at an advanced 
age. Near the lauds of the Hoover families, Jesse Clark, 
Palph Wright, Alexander Moore, and Amos and Abner Claw- 
son settled. A little further up were the Staffbrds, Bonds, 
Bunkers, Swallows, Ashbys, Andrewses, and others; all of 
whom, we believe, were from North Carolina, and chiefly 



32 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, 

Friends. They bad a small log meeting-liouse in the vicinity, 
and wore subordinate to Whitewater Monthly Meeting. 

William Bond had erected a saw-mill, and Joshua Bond a 
cheap orl-mill. Edward Bond, Sen., died a few years after he 
came. A little further up, Jeremiah Cox, Jun., settled, and 
early bnilt a grist-mill, to the great gratification of the settlers. 
Above Cox's mill were a few inhabitants. Among these were 
Isaac Commons, Robert Morrisson, Barnabas Boswell, Isaac, 
John, and Wm. Hiatt, and John Nicholson, the farms of some 
of whom are now. within the limits of Franklin township. 
Bladen Ashby settled near Cox's mill, and owned the land 
from which lias long been obtained the lime furnished the 
builders of Richmond. 

Among the early settlers, there was probably none poorer — 
certainly none whose humble beginning and future condition 
in life present a wider contrast — than Robert Morrisson. lie 
was a brother-in-law of Jeremiah Cox, Sen., and came in from 
Carolina in 1810. After lodging a short time in an out-house 
of Cox used as a sheep pen, he settled on Middle Fork, as 
above stated. Neither in the hut he had just left, nor in his 
cabin in the northern wilderness, nor when hunting and trap- 
ping wolves and taking bounties for their scalps, could he have 
dreamed of the success he achieved. In 1813 or 1814, he 
sold his new farm, and, as will be hereafter seen, made his 
second advent, and as a permanent settler, in the embryo town 
of Richmond. 

On West Fork, above the lands of the Ratliff and Hoover 
families, already mentioned, was Joshua Picket, an early 
settler. Next above was the Addington settlement, on both 
sides of the stream. Further up, the lirst settlers were the 
Starbucks, Swains, Harrises, Turners, and others, who were 
useful, enterprising citizens. Paul Swain and Wm. Starbuck 
wagoned produce of various kinds to Fort Wayne. Edward 
Starbuck, Sen., was an early justice of the peace. William 
died in middle life. Hester Starbuck, his widow, died within 
the last three or four years, having lived to old age. 

An early settlement was also made, iti 1806, about 4 or 5 
miles south-east of Richmond, b}' Jesse Davenport, Jacob 
Fouts, and his sons William and Jacob, and his son-in-law, 




/io^pyof^-{j 



u?-^- 



LOG CABINS. 66 

Thomas Bulla, natives of North Carolina, but immediately 
from Ohio, Bj- the formation of Boston, the land of Daven- 
port was taken into that township. Other families came in 
soon after. 

The heads of the pioneer families were generally of middle 
age, and robust, as were also their worthy wives, who were well 
adapted for the hardships and toils of a frontier life. They 
were on what they considered the extreme border of civiliza- 
tion; the average breadth of Government lands along the east 
line of the territory being only about seven miles, until after 
the "Twelve Mile Purchase" of the Indians was made. Few 
or no other settlements were known in any parts of the ter- 
ritorj' except Vincennes, and on the Ohio river. Some families 
settled on this Purchase before it was surve3'ed; but a large 
portion of these left their habitations, from apprehensions of 
molestation by the Indians during the war of 1812, and did not 
return until after the war was ended. After the return of 
peace, the Twelve Mile Purchase was settled rapidly. 

Log Cabins. 

A. description of those early domiciles familiarly called log 
cabins, and the mode of erecting them, may be interesting to 
the younger readers, and especially to their descendants, who 
will never see a structure of this kind. The early settlers, 
after roads had been opened by cutting away the underbrush, 
came in on wagons, some of them drawn by four-horse teams. 
It is said that a few came with their Carolina carts, the wheels 
of which were banded with wooden tire and pitched with tar. 
This, however, needs confirmation. Their horses (probably 
not in all cases) were harnessed in husk collars and rawhide 
traces. They were wont to stop with their Carolina friends, 
and partake of their hospitality until a cabin was built. In 
this they were kindly assisted by those already settled here. 
A patch of ground having been cleared, they would turn out 
en masse. Trees of uniform size were selected, cut into pieces 
of the desired length, and carried or hauled to the spot, which 
was generally selected near a spring of water, regardless of 
other considerations. Hence, many afterward found them- 
selves at an inconvenient distance from roads, and their cabins, 



34 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

perhaps, hid away in some hollow. While the logs were being 
brought together, others were selecting a board tree, usually an 
oak of large size. This was cut into pieces about four feet in 
length with a cross-cut saw, if any were so fortunate as to have 
one. These pieces were, with a fro and wooden maul, riven 
into boards, called clapboards. Others, still, w^ould be riving 
and slitting out narrow^ pieces for a chimney. 

The cabin was in the meantime rapidly going up. At each 
corner was an expert hand with an ax to saddle and notch 
down the logs so low as to bring them near together. The 
usual height was one stor3^ The gable was made with logs 
gradually shortened up to the top. The roof was made by 
laying small logs or stout poles reaching from gable to gable, 
suitable distances apart, on which were laid the split clap- 
boards after the manner of shingling, showing two feet or 
more to the weather. These clapboards were fastened by la}'- 
ing across them heavy poles called weight j^oles, reaching from 
one gable to the other; being kept apart and in their places by 
laying between them sticks, or pieces of timber, called knees. 
A wide chimney place was cut out of one end of the building, 
and split timbers laid up for jambs, flat sides inward, extend- 
ing out from the building. This little structure supported the 
chimney which stood entirely outside of the house, and was 
built of the rived sticks before mentioned, laid up cob-house 
fashion, gradually narrowed in to the top. The spaces between 
the sticks were tilled with clay of the consistency of common 
mortar. Hence the name of "stick and clay chimne3\" The 
inside of these wooden jambs was covered several feet high 
with a thick coat of clay or dirt to protect them against Are. 
The hearth also was dirt. For a window, a piece, two feet 
long, less or more, was cut out of one of the wall logs, and the 
hole closed with paper pasted over it. A door-way also was 
cut through one of the walls, and split pieces called door- 
cheeks, reaching from the bottom to the top of the opening, 
were pinned to the ends of the logs with wooden pins. A 
door was made of split clapboards, battons being nailed on 
with wrought nails made by a pioneer blacksmith, and was 
bung with wooden hinges. The interstices or cracks between 
the logs were closed with mud. The larger cracks or chinks, 



LOG CABINS. 35 

were first partially closed with split sticks before the clay or 
mud was applied. Some had wooden fl.oors, which, before the 
days of saw-mills, were made of slabs split from straight 
grained timber, and called j)uncheons. They were generally 
hewed on one side, and fastened on log sills with wooden 
pins. Many a child performed its first locomotion on a 
puncheon floor, and came in contact, at full length, with the 
rough surface of those slabs. The cabin was now ready for 
the family, all the work having in some instances been done 
in one day. 

Some of the Carolinians brought no bedsteads. A substi- 
tute was made by boring holes in the walls, into which the 
ends of strong poles were fitted, the cross pieces resting on 
forked upright pieces fastened to the puncheon floor, or to 
the ground, if there were no such floor. This rough frame, 
overlaid with clapboards, was ready for the feather beds the 
immigrants had brought with them. 

The internal arrangements of one of these rude dwellings 
is thus described : The door is opened b}^ pulling a leather 
string that lifts a wooden latch on the inside. [The inmates 
made themselves secure in the night season by pulling the 
string in.] On entering, (it being meal time,) we find a por- 
tion of the family sitting around a large chest in which their 
valuables had been brought^ but which now serves as a table 
from which they are partaking their plain meal cooked by a log 
heap fire. In one corner of the room are two or more clap- 
boards on wooden pins, displaying the table ware, consisting 
of a few cups and saucers, and a few blue edged plates, with 
a goodly number of pewter plates, perhaps standing, single, 
on their edges, leaning against the wall, to render the display 
of table furniture more conspicuous. Underneath this cup- 
board are seen a few pots and perhaps a Dutch oven. Not 
many chairs having been brought in, the deficiency has been 
supplied with stools made of puncheon boards with three 
legs. Over the doorway lies the indispensable rifle on two 
wooden hooks, probably taken from a dog-wood bush, and 
nailed to a log of the cabin. Upon the inner walls hang 
divers garments of female attire made of cotton and woolen 



36 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

fabrics, and perhaps one or two blue and white calico dresses 
which had done long service in the Carolinas before their 
transportation hither. 

Among the different ways of lighting log cabins, Rev. 
Wm. C. Smith, in his "Indiana Miscellanies," gives the 
following: " During the day, the door of the cabin was kept 
open to afford light; and at night, through the winter season, 
light was emitted from the fireplace, where huge logs were 
kept l)ui'ning. Candles and lamps were ont of the question 
for a few years. When these came into use, thej^ were purely 
domestic in their manufacture. Candles were prepared by 
taking a wooden rod some 10 or 12 inches in length, wrap- 
ping a strip of cotton or linen cloth around it, then covering 
it with tallow pressed on with the hand^ These 'sluts,' as 
they were sometimes called, answered the purpose of a very 
large candle, and afforded light for several nights. Lamps 
were prepared hy dividing a large turnip in the middle, 
scraj)ing out the inside quite down to the rind, then inserting 
a stick, say three inches in length, in the center, so that it 
would stand upright. A strip of cotton or linen cloth was 
then wrapped around it, and melted lard or deer's tallow was 
poured in till the turnip rind was full, when the lamp was 
ready for use. By the light of these, during the long winter 
evenings, the womeu spun and sewed, and the men read 
when books could be obtained. When neither lard nor 
tallow could be had, the large blazing fire supplied the 
needed light. By these great fireplaces, many cuts of thread 
have been spun, many a yard of linsey woven, and many a 
frock and buckskin pantaloons made." 

Living in houses like those here described, must have been 
attended with serious discomforts. A single room was made 
to serve the [lurposes of kitclum, dining-room, sitting-room, 
bed-room, and pai-lor. In many families were six, eight, or 
ten children, who, with their parents, were crowded into one 
room. In one corner was the father and mother's bed, and 
under it the trundle-bed for the smaller cliildren. The larger 
children lodged in the chamber, which they entered by a 
ladder in another corner; and sometimes made tracks to and 
from their beds in the snow driven through the crevices by 



CLEARING LAND. 37 

the wiiul. Nor did their roofs, made of bark or clapboards, 
23rotcct them from rains in the summer. IIow visitoi-.s who 
came to spend the night were dis[)Osed of, tlie reader may 
not easily conceive. Some, as their iamilies increased, added 
to their houses another room of the same size and manner 
of construction as the former. Such were the domiciles and 
the condition of many of the early settlers of AYhitewater 
valley. A few of these men still remain among us, in pos- 
session of ample fortunes, and in the enjoyment of the con- 
veniences and improvements of the present age — the reward 
of their early privations and toils. 

Clearing Land. 

The land in this region was covered with heavy timber 
and a profusion of undergrowth of various kinds, some 
bearing wild fruits, as grapes, plums, gooseberries, pawpaws, 
crab apples, &c. The custom of cutting down all the timber 
at first, as was done in some states, did not prevail bere. The 
bushes were either cut down or grul)bed out ; and the smaller 
trees, including all under about eighteen inches in diameter, 
were chopped down, and their bodies cut into lengths of 
twelve to fifteen feet, and their brush piled in heaps. The 
large trees were left standing, and " deadened " by girdling. 
This was done with an ax, cutting through the bark into the 
wood all round the trunk, thus causing the death and decay 
of the tree. After the brush heaps had become sufficiently 
dried, they were burned. As a "good burn " was desirable, 
a dry time was generally chosen wdien the whole surface of 
the ground would be burned over by the old dried leaves 
covering it. Soil thus scorched over, would be sure to yield 
abundantly. Next followed the process of log-rolling, or, as 
it was in some places called, " logging." The neighbors, 
having been previously invited, were present with a full 
supply of handspikes. These were strong poles, about six 
feet long, of proper thickness, and flattened or tapered at 
the larger end, in order to its being more easily put under or 
between the logs. Logs too large to be taken up by hand 
and carried to a heap, were put upon a number of hand- 
spikes, and by one or two men at each end of every hand- 



38 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

spike, carried to the heap. Logs too heavy to be carried, 
were hauled to the heap by a team and log chain, and rolled 
up on the pile on skids, handspikes being generally of sufii- 
cient strength for this purpose. The heaps were then burned, 
and the ground was ready for tillage. 

An old settler briefly describes the manner of clearing 
land, as follows : "Where the timber was mostly beech and 
sugar-tree, the common way was to grub the spice and other 
bushes, and pile them around the large trees, and cut up the 
old dead logs. All the trees under 18 or 20 inches in diam- 
eter were then cut down, and large brush heaps made around 
all the rest. The brush, when dry, were burned, scorching 
the trees some 15 or 20 feet high, and killing them sooner 
than if they had been girdled with an ax. Thus most of the 
first fields cleared were left with many dead trees. Oak, 
poplar, and walnut trees would stand many years ; but the 
beech and sugar maple would begin to fall about the third 
year; and the field must be cleared a second time by taking 
ofi' the dead timber. After a few years, the trees were dead- 
ened by hacking them round [girdling] before the land was 
cleared, and all taken off at once. This was the easier way; 
but the first settlers could not wait for the trees to decay 
when they cleared jtheir first fields." 

Another mode of clearing, confined chiefly to the removal 
of the deadened timber, may be mentioned. Trees that did 
not fall were cut down. Instead of chopping their bodies into 
pieces, a mode was adopted requiring less strain of muscle. It 
was called "niggering." The smaller logs or broken limbs 
and other rubbish, were thrown across the fallen trees; and 
fire was applied to them. Once a day, or oftener, it w^ould be 
necessary for a man to revisit his field to rebuild or renew his 
fires; or, to use a common phrase, to " right up my niggers." 
How this use of that word originated, is mere matter of con- 
jecture. It has been suggested that, as many of the early 
settlers came from states where labor was performed for men 
by the power of muscle other than their own, they naturally 
associated the agency employed in this process, with the servile 
labor of the South. 

In some of the states, deadening or girdling is not practiced. 



FARE OF THE EARLY SETTLERS. 39 

All the timber is cut down at once, chopped into logs, and the 
ground cleared and planted or sown the same 3'ear, if the crop 
is so soon desired. 

We subjoin the following from a letter received from an old 
settler past fourscore : "The principal business in those days 
was the clearing of land, making fences, &c. Those who 
hired their laud cleared, would pay b}^ the acre for cutting the 
timber, taking all that was 'a foot or under,' or 'eighteen 
inches or under,' as the contract might be, and get it ready 
for rolling. He that could clear an acre the quickest, and cut 
and split the most rails in a day, was accounted the most hon- 
orable. Another test of a man's standing in the estimation of 
his fellow-men, was the choice made at log-rollings. It was 
common to choose two captains, who would divide the ground 
containing the logs to be rolled, one taking the choice of 
hands, the other the choice of the ground. The men would 
then stand in a ring fair to be seen, when the captains would 
proceed to choose, turn about; the first chosen was the most 
honorable ; the last chosen, the reverse." 

Fare of the Early Settlers; Bread and other Provisions. 

Not the least of the hardships of the pioneers was the pro- 
curing of bread. The first settlers must be supplied at least 
one year, sometimes longer, from other sources than their own 
lands. Many who settled in the eastern part of this county, 
were obliged, for several years, to make a two or three days' 
journey to Ohio, going and returning, for their grain and meal. 
And after they had raised grain for themseleves, they had to 
get grinding done there, until mills were built here. Thomas 
Bulla, already mentioned as a settler four miles south-east of 
Richmond, in a "Pioneer Sketch," in the Richmond Palladium 
of March 13, 1856, says he took a grist of his first crop of 
corn to Bruce's mill near Eaton, O., 12 miles. Having b^en 
badly frost-bitten, it was found unfit for bread, and was fed to 
his cow. Having no money to buy with, he went to his father- 
in-law in Ohio, and got nine bushels of corn, for which he 
was to pay when able. He bought of his brother William 
2J bushels of wheat which was all he had the first year. 



40 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Settlers had to pack all their grain from the settlements in 
Ohio on horseback, until they raised a supply at home. 

Jeremiah Cox, son of the elder Jeremiah, gives an account 
of packing grain from Ohio, in substance as follows : His 
father brought some breadstuflp with him from the Miami 
country. This, with the corn he bought with his land from 
Woodkirk, carried him through the first winter. The corn 
was ground with an iron hand-mill they had brought with 
them. It was constructed on the principle of a coifee-mill, 
but was much larger, and was propelled by two cranks; and 
he says : "It was believed that it never ground the meal toojlne." 

The neighbors joined the next season in blazing out a bridle 
way to Stillwater, 0., for the purpose of packing breadstuff 
from there on horseback, and Jerry, the son, and one or two 
others, made one or two trips in that way. But his father 
thought this too slow a way to supply his large family with 
bread, and conceived the idea of sending wagons through on 
the " Quaker trace," as it was called, Jerry took his father's 
small four-wheeled wagon ; and the two fore wheels of their 
large wagon were " rigged up" for his uncle James Morrisson. 
Thus equipped, with an ax and three or four days' provisions, 
they set out on their journey. After a tedious drive over 
weeds, chunks, logs, and saplings, they reached their place of 
destination. They procured their lading of good, sound corn; 
but, to their great disappointment, they were unable to get it 
ground without staying longer than was deemed expedient ; 
and they accordingly started homeward. 

Having heard that there aws a water mill at l^ew Lexington, 
and that there was a road cut out from Dayton to Eaton by way 
of Xew Lcxiijgton ; and Cox dreading the grinding of so much 
hard corn by hand, he insisted on getting it ground before 
they returned; to which his uncle Morrisson very reluctantly 
assented. They traveled from place to place, winding, back- 
ing, and turning, to almost every point of the compass, until 
they found the looked-for Dayton road. Traveling along in 
cheerful mood, they met a man who told them they presently 
would come to an old " hurricane," through which there was 
only a bridle way, and there was no possible way round. 
[The reader perhaps understands, that the word hurricane is 



FARE OF THE EARLY SETTLERS. 41 

here used to signify a thick second growth of small timber, and 
not the storm itself, by which the earlier growth had been pros- 
trated.] The hurricane w^as soon reached, the saplings stand- 
ing thick on the ground. They went vigorously to work, and 
cut their way through, a half mile or more. It was near 
sunset ; and soon coming to a house, they put up for the night. 

Early the next morning they were on their w^ay — reached 
Nesbit's mill at Lexington — got their corn ground, and 
started for home. But before they had got to Eaton, they 
Sunk into a slough, which, Cox says, answered the descrip- 
tion Bunyan gives of the " slough of despond." They could 
extricate themselves only by unloading their wagons, and 
carrying their sacks of meal on their backs through the 
swamp to firm ground. To do so, Cox took oft' his shoes 
and laid them on a log. After a good deal of splashing in 
the mud, they got their wagons out ; but, like the poor 
" pilgrim," the}^ were much " bedaubed with the filth of the 
slough." They reloaded their wagons and started on their 
way. But in the hurry and confusion of the moment. Cox 
forgot his shoes, and never heard from them afterward. 
"Without any further difi&culty, they safely reached home 
with a good supply of w^ell-ground meal, which was a luxury 
indeed to the family, after having been fed for some time on 
meal none too fine, and from corn not sound. They had 
overstaid their time about two days. Many other cases 
might be given, showing the difficulty in obtaining this 
indispensable article of food. 

But the first crops of the earliest settlers, however abun- 
dant, gave only partial relief. There ^vere no mills to grind 
the grain. Hence the necessity of grinding by hand powder, 
as in the case mentioned by Cox. Eew families, however, it 
is presumed, were even thus poorly provided with the means 
of cracking their bread corn. 

Ano her way was to grate the corn. A grater was made 
of a piece of tin, sometimes taken from an old worn out tin 
bucket or other vessel. It was thickly perforated, bent into 
a semi-circular form, and nailed, rough side upward, on a 
board. The corn was taken in the ear, and grated before it 
had become quite dry and hard. 



42 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

As early, however, as tlie fall of 1807, diaries Hunt started 
a mill on the Elkhorn, a mile above its mouth, which did 
grinding for the people in the vicinity of Richmond, until 
Jeremiah Cox built his mill near the present site of Jackson, 
Swaine and Dunn's Woolen Mills, below the National Bridge. 
This, like Hunt's, was a tub-mill. The stones were 2| feet 
in diameter, and ground 2 bushels in an hour. Wm. Bulla 
built the next mill a short distance north of Eichmond. 
These mills were covered by planting in the ground stout 
poles with forks at the upper ends, in which were laid poles 
to support the roof, which was made of split clapboards, 
after the manner of covering log cabins. " This," says Jerry 
Cox, " sheltered the hopper and the meal trough pretty well, 
lohen the wind did n't blow." A few months after Bulla's mill 
was built. Cox built one himself where he now lives, six 
miles north of Richmond. This he sheltered with a log 
house similar to a log cabin, 20 feet square, covered with a 
cabin roof in the usual style. In a favorable stage of water, 
this mill would grind two bushels of frost-bitten corn in an. 
hour. He judges the three last mentioned mills to have 
cost, in the aggregate, about $500. 

Corn was eaten in various ways. The earliest mode of 
baking, (cast iron ware being scarce,) was to put the dough 
on a smooth board, two feet long and six or eight inches 
wide, placed on the hearth slanting toward the tire. When 
the upper side was baked, the bread was turned over for 
baking the other side. When lard was plenty, the bread 
was well shortened, and called johnny-cake. Some baked in 
a Dutch oven, when that article could be obtained. Some- 
times the dough was made into lumps, which, when baked, 
were called corn-dodgers. Others raised the dough with yeast, 
and baked it in a Dutch oven. This was called j^owe, and 
was a decided improvement. 3Iush, or hasty-pudding, eaten 
in milk, was then a common article of diet, especially for 
supper. In its green state, corn was boiled in the ear, and 
sometimes roasted before the fire. Before there were mills 
near to grind the corn, hominy was much used as a substitute 
for bread. The corn was soaked in lye made from ashes to 
loosen the skin, and then pounded in a wooden mortar with 



FARE OF THE EARLY SETTLERS. 43 

a wooden pestle till the skin was peeled off. This was called 
lye hominy. This mortar is said to have been a piece of a 
solid, dry log, in one end of which was burned a cavity or 
hollow of sufficient depth to hold the corn. 

A story is told of an old settler who had on his farm a 
small stream with a considerable fall, on which he placed a 
water-wheel, to which he attached a contrivance for raising 
a heavy piece of timber and dropping it into the mortar 
holding the corn. Tradition (not always reliable authority) 
saj's this mill one day played havoc with its owner's sheep. 
Leaving the mill at work during a short absence, his sheep, 
putting their heads into the mortar to eat corn, were struck 
on their heads by the pestle, and several of them killed. 

Our aged friend Cox, among the numerous incidents he has 
furnished us of "life in the woods," gives the following "bill 
of fare" of the settlers. It differs less in the number than in 
the kinds and quality of the articles in the lists on the tables 
ot our best modern hotels: 

""We had our large hominy and small hominy, large pone, 
johnny-cake, hoe-cake, and dodgers, boiled dumplings, and 
fried cakes, all made of corn meal. Of meats we had hog's 
meat, venison, opossums, raccoons, and squirrels. Of fowls 
we had wild turkeys, pheasants, wild pigeons and ducks, all of 
which were cooked in divers ways to suit the taste, or in ac- 
cordance with the customs of the times. There were in use 
several kinds of coftee ; as, bread coftee, crust coffee, meal cof- 
fee, potato coffee, and, after wheat was raised, wheat and flour 
coffee. Those who used the imported had to pay 33 to 50 
cents a pound. In the spring we had many kinds of wild 
weeds boiled for greens to eat with our meat. And for dain- 
ties on particular occasions, as weddings, quil tings, house rais- 
ings, and log rollings, we had custards and firmities [boiled 
wheat], with milk stirred in and sweetened to taste. With 
maple sugar, this was deemed quite a dainty. For tea, we had 
sassafras, spicewood, beech leaf, sycamore chips, etc. In the 
summer and fall we had Irish potatoes; for fall and winter use, 
pumpkins and turnips in abundance. The pumpkins were 
dried for winter use, by cutting them in rings and placing 



44 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

them on poles, and hanging thera on the joist in front of the 
fireplace. 

"My father contracted with Ewell Kendall for several 
bushels of wheat, the lirst I knew of being raised on White- 
water. I do not remember the price paid for it. I was 
sent for it, and recollect George Holman's being present and 
remarking to Kendall, that he was "a money-making man." 
This wheat we ground in our hand-mill, and sifted the flour 
through a meal sieve of horse hair. Out of this flour we had 
many excellent breakfasts." 

Corn was the principal grain crop of the settlers. The soil 
was adapted to its production, and the yield was abundant. 
Yet the farmers found one serious difliculty in its cultivation. 
Vast injury was done to cornfields by birds and quadrupeds, 
both by picking up the seed and taking the grain from the ear. 
Farmers, sometimes, unaware of the secret working of these 
little depredators, found their planted seed corn nearly all 
picked up by crows and squirrels. Blackbirds, in large flocks, 
would light upon the ears before the grain was hard, and in- 
jure it badly. And in the fall the squirrels and raccoons 
would diligently carry on the work of devastation. Squirrel 
hunts were frequent, and prizes awarded to those who killed 
the greatest number. These hunts were often got up in the 
spring to protect the planted cornfields. A subscription paper 
was circulated, and subscriptions were taken payable in corn 
to be distributed as prizes among the hunters. On the day set 
for counting the scalps, the men and boys of the neighborhood 
would attend, eager to learn the result. Some of these hunt- 
ers, it is presumed, were stimulated no less by the expectation 
of a "good time" and the honor of being the best hunter, than 
by the prizes oflered. 

Native Pastures; Wood Tanges; Hog Hunts. 

The wild grass and other herbage with which the woods 
abounded, made them for several years good pasture grounds. 
Horses and cattle were "belled" early in the spring and 
turned into the woods. Horses were hunted when wanted to 
work, and cows at milking time. The concert of half a score 
of bells and the songs of an equal number of the various 



NATIVE PASTURES, ETC. 45 

feathered tribes, furnished no mean entertainment to those 
whose musical tastes had not been formed by the artistic per- 
formances of modern trained melodists. Hunting the cows was 
a part of the daily labor of every family; and it was done by 
boys if there were in the family any old enough to go without 
getting lost, or were able to carry the rifle; for it was not 
safe to go far without this weapon of defense. A boy by the 
name of Wm. Kaines, whose father ha i settled a few miles 
from where Cambridge City now is, was one of these cow- 
hunters for the family. Starting as usual, just before night, 
and having gone about half a mile, he heard a noise behind 
him, and, looking back, saw two wolves on his track. He 
drew up his rifle and fired, wheeled, and ran home for help. 
On returning to the place, one of the wolves was found dead 
with a bullet hole in his head. 

The woods were valuable also for the meat they furnished. 
While the clearings were yet small and corn was scarce, the 
tbrest furnished subsistence for hogs, which would often fatten 
on beech nuts, hickory nuts, and acorns. But running in the 
woods, the}"^ soon became wild, and when wanted for meat, 
were not easily taken. Some would escape for years, until 
their tusks had grown to nearly the length of a man's finger. 
These old hogs were formidable resistants to their pursuers. 
In defending the younger ones of the gang when seized by a 
dog, they have been known to spring at the dog, and rip out 
his entrails with one flirt of the snout. Men without guns to 
defend themselves, have been compelled to climb trees to avoid 
their attacks. Neighbors joined at killing time to hunt their 
hogs with dogs and guns. Their hope of success depended 
chiefly upon first shooting the oKl ones. 

An old settler, [H. C. T.,] says he was one of about a dozen 
who went on one of these hog-hunting expeditions. Being told 
that the hogs were young, and that only dogs and knives were 
needed, all went without guns, except one, a weakly man, who, 
being unable to run, fortunately, as it proved, took his rifle. 
After an hour's hunt, the hogs were discovered and overtaken. 
Being stopped by the dogs, they huddled together with their 
noses out, ready for a fight. Two were caught by the dogs, 
and knifed; after which, an old hog, which was among them, 



46 HISTORY OP WAYiVE COUNTY. 

would, when the dogs caught a hog, fight them off', until he 
was shot hy the man carrying the rifle. After a chase of about 
three miles, the last hog was captured. 

The forest was also of no small value as a hunting ground 
for deer and other game. Deer hunting in the winter was a 
common business. Much of the meat of deer was sometimes 
lost. The hunter, if alone and far from home, would shouhler 
the more valuable part — the hams and the skin — and leave the 
rest for the wolves, or, as was sometimes done, hung up to a 
sapling or a large limb of a tree, which had perhaps been bent 
down for the purpose, and which, springing back, w^onld raise 
the meat beyond the reach of the wolves. Having delivered 
his first load at his cabin, he would return, though perhaps not 
the same day — conducted to the spot by his tracks in the snow, 
and bring home the remainder. If two hunters were in com- 
pany, the legs of a deer would be tied to a pole, and the 
animal carried away, each hunter taking an end of the pole on 
his shoulder. 

But the principal meat of the earl}' settlers did not long con- 
sist of game. Pork and poultry were soon raised in abund- 
ance. The common fowl furnished both meat and eggs. 
Geese, though sometimes eaten, were raised chieflj^ for their 
feathers, with which the settlers replenished their old bed-ticks 
and filled their new ones. Doubtless, many still repose on 
beds made by their mothers or grandmothers more than half a 
century ago. 

Wild Ayiimals. 

The wild animals inhabiting this region at the time of its 
settlement, were the deer, wolf, bear, wild cat, fox, otter, 
porcupine or hedge hog, raccoon, woodchuck or ground hog, 
skunk, mink, muskrat, opossum, rabbit, weasel, and squirrel. 
Several of these animals furnished the early settlers with 
meat, but chiefly the deer. None were much feared except 
the bear and the wolf. The former was the most dangerous 
to meet; the latter the more destructive to property. The 
bear is generally ready to attack a person ; the wolf seldom 
does so unless impelled by hunger, or in defense. For many 
years it was difficult to protect sheep from the ravages of the 
wolves. They had to be penned every night. Man}'^ were 



WILD ANIMALS. 47 

destroyed even in the day time near the house. It is the 
nature of the wolf to seize a sheep by the throat and suck 
its blood, and leave the carcase as food for other carniverous 
animals ; provided the number of sheep was sufficient thus 
to satisfy the hunger of their destroyer. Pigs and calves 
also were sometimes victims to these pests of the early 
settlers. Their bowlings in the night would often keep 
families awake, and set all the dogs in the neighborhood to 
barking. Their yells were often terrific. Says an old settler : 
" Suppose six boys having six dogs tied, and whipping them 
all at the same time, and you would hear such a noise as two 
wolves would make." 

To effect the destruction of these animals, the county 
authorities offered bounties for their scalps. The accounts 
of county expenditures for many years show the pa3'ment of 
wolf bounties. But as wolves hunt in the night, when they 
can not be shot, they were more frequently caught in traps, 
which were made in divers ways. One kind was the " dead 
fall." Another was a small pen made of small logs or heavy 
poles, about 6 or 7 feet high, and narrowed at the top. Into 
this pen a bait was thrown. A wolf could easily enter it at 
the top, but was unable to get out. This is the kind in 
which Robert Morrisson "trapped" wolves when he lived in 
the woods above Middleborough. Jeremiah Cox, Jun., or 
"Young Jerry," as he was then familiarly called, having 
spoken of an unsuccessful search of raccoon tracks in the 
woods after a fall of snow, in company with his uncle Mor- 
risson, and another uncle, John Turner, says : "We returned 
homeward by way of uncle Morrisson's wolf traps, which 
were on the Ohio side. In one of these traps was a large 
black wolf. Uncle Morrisson- began to devise ways and 
means of tying up its mouth and hamstringing its hind legs, 
and of taking it home to fight with his dogs, for sport. 
'Blood!' said uncle Turner, 'let us kill the ratched varmint,' 
at the same instant striking the wolf with the sharp edge of 
his ax through a crack of the trap, which bled the animal 
to death in a few minutes, thus putting an end to uncle 
Morrisson's anticipations of sport. But some time afterward 
he trapped another, which he succeeded in capturing, and 



48 HISTORY OP WAYNE COUNTY. 

had the sport. But lie found the wolf a match for all the 
dogs that attacked it." The scalps of 'these two wolves were 
probably the ones for which he once drew from the county 
treasury $3. 

Another kind of trap was made of split logs, about 6 feet 
long, 4 feet wide, and 3 feet high, with a heavy lid sufficiently 
raised to let the wolf in. Jumping in to get the bait, he 
would spring the triggers ; the lid would fall, and confine 
him until he could I e shot. 

Another Avas the steel trap, with jaws a foot or more in 
length. The clamps were notched like a cross-cut saw; and 
there was a stift' spring each side. Attached to the trap was 
a chain with hooks, not to fasten it, but to make it difficult 
for the wolf to drag it. Caught, as he probably would be, 
by the fore leg while trying to paw out the bait, if the trap 
were made fast, he would gnaw off' his leg and be gone. 
Ishmael Bunch, an old hunter, who settled early half a mile 
east of Whitewater, [lately Hillsboro',] had a trap of this 
kind set a few miles cast of the Ohio line at a place called 
" fallen timber," which was a great resort for wolves. He 
went with his son "Dick," a youth of seventeen, to see the 
trap, but it was gone. Following the trail, they overtook 
the wolf on a side hill on the bank of East Fork. " Now, 
Dick," said Bunch, "I 'ntend to kill that ar wolf with my 
tom'hawk." Dick set down his gun and stood to see the 
wolf killed. His fore leg was in the trap, his long white 
teeth shining, and the dogs shying around. The old man 
aimed a heavy blow at the wolf's head. The wolf dodged, 
and was not touched. But such was the momentum pro- 
duced by the stroke, as to whirl the old man round ; and he 
fell near the wolf. Being snapped at by the wolf, he made 
such an effort to spring away, that he soon found himself on 
"all fours" over the brow of the liill; and, unable to stop 
himself, (being a heavy man,) he bounded along to the bot- 
tom. He soon returned, however, more scared than hurt, 
and ordered Dick to shoot the wolf. The boy, convulsed 
with laughter, found the task a difficult one. 

Wolves were sometimes accused of deeds committed by 
dogs. The following is a case: Dr. John Thomas, residing 



EARLY COOKING. 49 

where his graudson Ilenrj W. Thomas now lives, in the 
township of Franklin, was called on one morning by a 
neighbor who accused his dogs of having killed most of his 
sheep, and threatened to shoot them in his presence. The 
doctor, loth to part with his favorite dogs, remonstrated 
against so hasty redress. But the neighbor, determined to 
carry his purpose into effect, was about to shoot, when the 
doctor prevailed on him to hold on till he could ascertain 
whether or not the dogs had eaten mutton. Having faith in 
emetics, he administered one on bread to each of the dogs. 
The effect was a copious discharge of mutton and wool. 
Wm. Addleman, an old resident of Franklin, confirms the 
facts above stated, and says he has seen the same effect pro- 
duced by suspending the dog by his hind legs. After a brief 
struggle with his head down, the contents of the stomach 
were discharged. 

Among the native animals of the forest w^hicli have long 
since disappeared, was the porcupine, familiarly called hedge 
hog. It was nearly as large as a raccoon, had a round head, 
and was covered all over with quills from an inch to two 
inches long, and as hard and as sharp as a needle. It was a 
terror to dogs. Young dogs, not knowing the consequence, 
would seize the animal, and get its quills stuck into their 
mouths. It could also, with its tail, switch the quills into the 
sides of a dog or other animal. It is the nature of these quills 
to work deeper into the flesh, and kill the dogs if not ex- 
tracted in season, which was usually done with a nippers. A 
dog once stuck with quills, would not touch the porcupine. 

Early Cooking. 

To witness the various i)rocesses of cooking in those days, 
would alike surprise and amuse those who have grown up since 
cooking-stoves came into use. The first thing likely to attract 
notice was the wide fire-place before described, some eight 
feet in the clear. Kettles were hung over the fire, to a strong 
pole which was raised so high above the fire as not to be likely 
to ignite from heat or sparks, the ends being fastened into the 
sides of the chimney. The kettles were suspended on tram- 
mels, which were pieces of iron rods, with hooks at both ends. 



50 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

The uppermost one extended from the pole nearly down to the 
fire; and with one or more short ones the kettles were brought 
to their proper height above the tire. Before iron was plenty, 
wooden hooks were sometimes used. Being directly above 
the kettles, they seldom took tire. 

The long-handled frying-pan was used for cooking meat. 
It was held on the tire by hand; or, to save time, the handle 
was sometimes laid across the back of a chair while the cook 
was " setting the table." The pan was also used for baking 
short cakes. It was placed in a nearly perpendicular posi- 
tion before the tire, with coals under or behind it to bake 
the under side. A more convenient article was a cast-iron, 
short-handled, three-legged spider, or skillet, which was set 
upon coals on the hearth. Its legs were so adjusted that 
when, in baking cakes or biscuit, it was turned up before the 
tire, it kept its semi- vertical position. Some of these skillets 
had iron covers, on which coals were thrown to bake the 
upper side. But the best thing for baking bread was the flat- 
bottomed bake-kettle, of greater depth, with legs and a closely 
fitted cast-iron cover, more commonly called Dutch oven. 
With coals over and under it, bread and biscuit were quickly 
and nicely baked. Turkej^s and spare-ribs were sometimes 
roasted before the tire, suspended by a string, a dish ^being 
placed underneath to catch the drippings. 

Some of the inconveniences of cooking "in open tire-places 
will be readily imagined. Women's hair was sometimes singed, 
their hands were blistered, and their dresses scorched. But 
frame houses, with good fire-places of brick or stone, measur- 
ably relieved our mothers and grandmothers. In one of the 
jambs was fastened an iron crane which extended over the tire, 
and could be drawn forward when kettles were to be put on 
•or taken off'. But the invention of cook-stoves commenced a 
new era in the mode of cooking; and none, the most averse 
to innovation, have indicated a desire to return to the "old 
way," which will hereafter be known only in history. 



EARLY TILLAGE. 51 

Early Tillage. 

Agriculture is a term hardly applicable to the farming of 
early times. The implements then used would, in this age of 
improvement, be great curiosities. Specimens on exhibition 
at our modern fairs would attract unusual attention. The 
plow used was called bar-share ylow. The iron part consisted 
of a bar of iron about two feet long, and a broad share of iron 
welded to it. At the extreme point was a coulter that passed 
through a beam six or seven feet long, to which were attached 
handles of corresponding length. The mold-board was a 
wooden one split out of winding timber, or hewed into a winding 
shape in order to turn the soil over. The whole length of the 
plow, from the fore end of the beam to the ends of the handles, 
was eight or ten feet. iSTewly cleared ground was, with this 
plow, broken up with great difficulty. From the tough roots 
bent forward by the plow and springing back, the plowman's 
legs would receive many a hard blow\ Some used on new 
ground only a shovel-plow, similar in shape and size to that of 
the present day, but differing in workmanship. 

Sown seed was " bushed in " by a sapling with a bushy top, 
or by a bundle of brush from a tree top, dragged, butts for- 
ward. As soon, however, as the ground would admit, the tri- 
angular harrow, or drag was used. This instrument was made 
of* two pieces of timber, (hewed, before there were mills to 
saw,) about five inches square, and about six feet long, an end 
of one framed into one end of the other, forming an acute 
angle, and kept apart by a shorter piece framed into the others 
near the center ; the instrument in form resembling the letter 
A. The teeth were of double the weight of those now used, 
in order to stand the violent collision with the roots and 
stumps over and among which they were to be drawn. A • 
harrow was sometimes made of a crotched tree, worked down 
to the proper size. The idea of a cast-iron plow had not yet 
entered the brain of the inventor, Jethro "Wood, of Cayuga 
county, N. Y. The improvements since made in the plow and 
the harrow, the invention of cultivators, drills for sowing and 
planting, and other labor-saving implements, have wonder- 



52 HISTORY OF "WAYNE COUNTY. 

fully changed the aspect of farming, and increased incalculably 
the power of production. 

In harvesting the change is most striking. Before the decay 
and removal of the stumps permitted the use of the grain- 
cradle, the cutting of grain was mostly done with the 
sickle, not at all used now for its original purpose. It was 
then a staple article of merchandise. In the old day-books 
and journals of the early merchants, if they could be found, 
might be seen the charge, " To 1 Sickle," under the names of 
scores of customers, followed, in many cases, by that other 
charge, "To 1 Gal. Whisky," an article then deemed by some 
as necessary in harvesting as the instrument itself The cradle, 
which superseded the sickle, is fast giving way — indeed, has 
in some parts of the country already given way — to the reaper, 
an instrument then not more likely to be invented than the 
photographic art, or the means of hourly communication with 
the inhabitants on the opposite side of the globe. Single fields 
of wheat of one hundred to five hundred acres each, are not 
rare in some of the western states. Let a man imagine an at- 
tempt to cut these immense fields of grain by handfuls with 
the sickle, and he can not fail to appreciate the invention of 
the reaper. 

Grain was threshed with a flail, which, in its rudest form, 
was made of a hickory sapling about two inches thick, and 
seveli or eight feet long. About two feet and a half from one 
end it was roasted in the fire, and at this place it was bruised 
or beaten, so as to cause it to bend. With this, grain was beaten 
out on the ground, if there was no barn floor. Another way 
of making a flail was to tie a stick, two or three feet long and 
two inches thick, to one end of a staft" of the size and length 
of a hoe handle, with a strong cord or leather string. A green 
hand, with this instrument, seldom failed of getting his head 
hit with one end of the swiugel. There were no fanning-mills 
to separate the grain from the chati'. No mill peddler had yet 
ventured so far west as Whitewater. To "raise the wind," a 
linen sheet was taken from the bed, and held at the corners by 
two men ; and by a semi-rotary motion or swinging of one 
side of the sheet, the chaft' was driven from the falling grain, 
the pure wheat lying in a pile ready to be garnered, or placed 



EARLY TILLAGE. 53 

under the bed for safe-keeping, until there was occasion to 
take it to mill. The tow-linen sheet was at length superseded 
by the fanning-mill. A single machine now receives the 
sheaves, and delivers the cleaned grain at the rate of several 
hundred bushels a day. A reaper is in use in some of the 
western states which carries two binders, and drops along its 
track the cut grain in sheaves, bound. 

In hay harvesting, also, improvements would seem to have 
reached perfection. A lad of sufficient age to drive a team, 
mows from fifty to one hundred acres of meadow in an ordi- 
nary haying season ; and the hay is all raked during the same 
time by a single hand. 

An old settler, who has furnished the writer valuable infor- 
mation on several subjects, thus describes the method of har- 
vesting and cleaning wheat, supplying some slight omissions 
in the description already given : 

Wheat was cut by hand with reap-hooks, [sickles,] bound, 
and put into shocks, and when sufficiently dried, into stacks. 
Before the farmer had a good barn floor, the wheat was 
threshed on the ground with a flail, a place having been pre- 
pared by beating down the clay with a maul. To separate it 
from the chaff, a riddle, [coarse sieve,] about 30 inches in di- 
ameter, was made by bending a wooden hoop 5 or 6 inches 
wide, and for a bottom, weaving splints across through holes 
made with a gimlet, and fastening them on the outside of the 
hoop. [Hosea C. Tillson, of Bethel, has yet in his possession 
a riddle of this kind made more than forty years ago.] A tow 
sheet was taken to make wind. This was done by two men, 
each taking an end, and whirling it over quickly. Another 
man holding up and shaking the riddle full of wheat in the 
chaff, the wind would blow the chaff from the falling wheat. 
About ten bushels were thus cleaned in half a day. After 
barns were built with floors, wheat was tramped out by 
horses. When the stubs and the small stumps had disap- 
peared, cradles and fanning-mills came into use. 

Getting grinding done, continues our friend, was for several 
years attended with difficulty. The settlers in the north- 
eastern part of the county were dependent upon mills in the 
vicinity of where Richmond now is. The mill afterward built 



54 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

bj Jeremiah Cox, Jiiii., six miles north of Kichmond, afforded 
great reHef to these northern settlers. But, like other early and 
cheaply constructed mills, it could not serve them in the dry 
and very cold seasons of the year. It was inclosed iti a log 
building, and had two runs of stones. Having no elevators, 
the miller, when the wheat was ground, had to carry the flour 
in a sack up to the bolting chest. This mill was visited from 
a great distance by men and boys bringing grain on horseback 
along the new and winding paths through the woods. 

The settler above alluded to also tells of a hand-mill that 
was resorted to in dry and cold weather. It was fixed on a 
square frame about as high as a table. In the upper stone, or 
runner, was a hole in which was put a staft', the upper end of 
which passed up through the floor overhead into the loft. 
Two persons standing opposite each other and taking hold of 
the staff", would whirl the upper stone round ; one of them feed- 
ing the mill by throwing in the grain by single handfuls. A 
few mills run by horse power were built. A person wanting 
grinding done, would hitch his own horses to the mill. The 
people of that section were at length relieved by the erection of 
a steam grist-mill at Newport Falls in 1833. A small mill had 
been built on Middle Fork, east of Bethel, in 1829, which did 
much grinding when water was plenty. 

AVhile by the invention of -the cultivator and other labor- 
saving implements, the power and facility of producing corn 
has been greatly increased, in the harvesting there has been 
comparatively little improvement. To this operation the em- 
ployment of machinery would seem to be impracticable. Dif- 
ferent modes have been practiced here. In the fall, while yet 
in a greenish state, the blades were stripped from the stalks, 
bound in bundles, and housed or stacked for cattle and sheep 
in winter. Sometimes the stalks with the leaves on were 
topped, that is, cut oft" just above the lower end of the ear; and 
these tops also were saved for fodder. When the corn was 
sufficiently dry, the ears were pulled from the stalks, and 
hauled into the log barn, or to the side of a rail pen ; the rails 
having been notched down to make it tight enough to hold 
the ears when husked. The cattle were then turned into the 
field to feed on the stalks in the winter. 



HOME MANUFACTURES. ' 55 

The husking was performed by that ancient — now obsolete — 
institution called corn-husking, in which the neighbors, old and 
young, were invited to participate. The anticipation of a 
"good time" secured a general attendance. A good supper, 
which several of the " neighbor women " had assisted in pre- 
paring, was usually served at eight or nine o'clock. The " old 
folks" would then leave, and in due time the boys would gal- 
lant the girls to their homes. The recreation afforded to the 
young people on the annual recurrence of these festive occa- 
sions, was as highly enjoyed and quite as innocent as most of 
the amusements of the present boasted age of refinement. 

Home Manufactures. 

After a brief residence at their new homes, the settlers found 
themselves in need of new clothing, which some of them were 
unable to purchase. Even the few who had money, could not 
supply themselves without great difficulty. The inhabitants of 
Whitewater were yet shut out from the commercial world. 
The nearest market town Vv^as Cincinnati ; and the only mode 
of transportation was by wagons over roads almost impassable 
most of the year. The settlers were obliged to supply them- 
selves chiefly by their own hands. Farmers, even in the older 
states, manufactured their own cloth, both for summer and 
winter wear. 

Flax was at first raised chiefly for the lint, for the jeason, 
probably, that the seed would not pay for its transportation to 
market. When the seed was about ripe, the flax was pulled 
up by the roots, and spread on the ground to rot. The rotting 
is done by the rains and the dew. It does not impair the 
strength of the lint; it only makes the straw brittle, that it 
may be easily separated from the lint. In preparing it for 
spinning, it passes through the several processes of breaking, 
scutching, or swingling, and hackling, or hatcheling. The part 
combed out by this last process, is called tow. It was made 
into a coarser fabric, for men's shirts and trowsers for common 
wear. The warp of this tow cloth was often — perhaps gen- 
erally — spun from the fine flax, the filling alone being spun 
from the tow. The fine linen was more generally worn by 



56 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

women, but was sometimes made into men's undergarments 
for Sunday wear. 

The spinning exercise is one wliicli few of the present 
generation of our girls have ever enjoyed. The wheel used 
for spinning flax was called the "little wheel" to distinguish 
it from the " big wheel " used for spinning wool. These 
"stringed instruments" furnished the principal music of the 
family, and were operated by our mothers and grandmothers 
with great skill, attained without expense, and by far less 
practice, than is necessary for our modern dames to acquire 
a skillful use of their elegant and costly instruments. They 
were indispensable household articles in those days; and, 
fortunately, a maker of them was among the early settlers. 
This wheelwright, in the person of Daniel Trimble, Avas 
regarded as a common benefactor to the inhabitants for 
many miles round. He was a son-in-law of John Smith. 
A few years later came Wm. Williams, a man of the same 
craft, and equally useful, perhaps more so ; for, being an 
esteemed preacher of the society of Friends, after six days' 
labor in supplying their temporal wants, he ministered the 
next day to their spiritual needs. 

The loom was not less necessary than the wheel. N'ot 
every house, however, in which spinning was done, had a 
loom. But there were always some who, besides doing their 
own weaving, did some also for those who could not do it for 
themselves. 

Woolen cloth also was a household manufacture. Settlers 
having succeeded in raising some sheep despite the devouring 
wolves, they commenced making cloth. The shearing of 
sheep was attended with trouble and delay, as that indispen- 
sable article, sheep-shears, was not owned by every farmer. 
One sometimes performed the circuit of a neighborhood. 
There being at first no carding machines, wool was carded 
and made into short rolls Avith hand-cards. These rolls were 
spun on the "big wheel," which may still be seen in the 
houses of some of the old settlers, being occasionally used 
for spinning and twisting stocking yarn. It was turned 
with the hand, and with such velocity as to give it sufficient 
momentum to enable the nimble mother, by her backward 



HOME MANUFACTURES. 57 

step, to draw out and twist her tliread of nearly the length 
of the cahin. Woolen cloth was woven on the loom used 
for weaving linen. A common article made was linsey, also 
called linsey-ivoolsey, of which the warp or chain was linen, 
and the filling woolen. 

Several years elapsed before fulled cloth was made, there 
being no fulling mills and cloth-dressing establishments. 
Flannel, all wool, was also made, and worn by the mothers 
and daughters. Flannel for women's wear, after dye-stuffs 
were to be had, was dyed such color as the wearers fancied. 
It was sometimes a plaid made of yarn of various colors, 
home-dyed. To improve their appearance, these flannels 
were sent to a cloth-dressing mill for a slight dressing, which 
was finished by a powerful pressing between large sheets of 
smooth pasteboard, to give it a glossy surface. 

Long after the country had passed its pioneer state, the 
farmers' houses continued to be miniature linen and woolen 
factories, in which the labor was chiefly performed by the 
wife and mother until the daughters Avere able to assist. 
Where there was more spinning to be done than the wife 
could do in addition to her housework, and Avhere the 
daughters were too young to help, spinsters were employed 
to come into families to spin flax and tow in the winter, and 
wool in the summer. These itinerant spinsters received a 
"York shilling" [12|- cents] a day — the day's work ending 
at early bed-time. Some will be surprised when told that 
many of these women had money to show at the year's end. 
It was to some extent a custom to count a certain number 
of "cuts" of yarn as a da3''s work. This had a tendency to 
accelerate the motion of the wheel, and lessen the hours of 
labor. These small earnings would not go far toward clothing 
Whitewater farmers' daughters of the present generation. 
Then young women were dressed in cloth of their own 
manufacture, except the calico for the summer Sunday dress, 
six yards being a full pattern for a woman of ordinary size. 

The linen made in families was not all worn in its brown 
or natural color. That which was intended for certain uses 
was bleached. It was spread on the grass, wet by sprinkling 



58 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

several times a day, and dried in sunshine. By this alternate 
wetting and drying, it was soon bleached to a perfect white. 

Much dyeing, too, as has been already intimated, was done 
in the family. Dye-woods and dye-stutfs formed no small 
portion of a country merchant's stock. Barrels of chipped 
Mcaragua, log- wood, and other woods, and kegs of madder, 
alum, copperas, vitriol, indigo, etc, constituted a largo part 
of teamsters' loading for the merchants. Man}', doubtless, 
remember the old dye-tub standing in the chimney corner, 
covered with a board, and used as a seat for children when 
chairs were wanted for visitors, or when new supplies of 
furniture failed to keep pace with the increase of the family. 
Mr. Goodrich, [Peter Parley,] describing early life in his 
native town in Connecticut, speaks of this " institution of 
the dye-tub," as having, " when the night had waned, and 
the family had retired, frequently become the anxious seat 
of the lover, who was permitted to carry on his courtship, 
the object of his addresses sitting demurely in the opposite 
corner." We have no authority for saying that it was ever 
used here on such occasions. 

l!^early all the cloth worn was "home-made." Rarely was 
a farmer or his son seen in a coat made of any other. If, 
occasionally, a young man appeared in a suit of "boughten" 
cloth, he was an object of envy to his rustic associates; or 
he was suspected of having got it for a particular occasion 
which occurs in the life of nearly every man. Few, except 
merchants, lawyers, doctors, and some village mechanics, 
wore cloth that had not passed through the hands of the 
country cloth-dresser. Hence merchants kept very small 
stocks of broadcloth. Cloths of the finer qualities they 
sometimes bought in small pieces, containing a certain 
number of patterns — one, two, or three — to avoid loss on 
remnants. 

There were also tailoresses who came into families to make 
up men's and boys' winter clothing. The cutting was mostly 
done !)y the village tailor, if there was a village near. "Bad 
fits," which were not uncommon, were generally charged to 
the cutter. Hence the custom of tailors, when inserting in 
their advertisements, " Cutting done on short notice, and 



HOME MANUFACTURES. 59 

warranted to fit," to append the very prudent proviso, " if 
properly made up," These seamstresses charged twenty -five 
cents a day for their work. This was thought by some em- 
ployers rather exorbitant, as the common price of help at 
housework was but one-half as much. 

The need of leather soon became pressing. The shoes 
brought in by the settlers were worn out. Large boys and 
girls had to go barefoot the greater part of the year, even to 
meeting. Tanneries of limited capacity were established. 
Some, having waited impatiently for the tanners to turn out 
leather, set up for themselves, and tanned the hides of their 
slaughtered cattle in a trough. Others substituted for shoes 
the cheaper article of moccasins, similar to those worn by the 
Indians. Skins of various kinds of animals were tanned for 
this purpose. Moccasins were sometimes sewed with leather 
thongs. An early settler yet living says, that in the days of 
his boyhood he tanned squirrel skins in a sugar trough, and 
made moccasins for himself; and he thought himself a little 
above his companions when he wore them to Whitewater 
meeting. Shoes for both feet were made on one last. " Rights 
and lefts" were unknown in those days. Boots were little 
worn by men, except in the winter season. 

We have spoken of houses as linen and woolen factories. 
Some were also shoe-shops. In some parts of the country 
there was, in almost every neighborhood, a circulating shoe- 
maker, who made his annual autumnal circuit with his " kit." 
The children had a happ}^ time during his sojourn, which 
lasted one, two, or more weeks, according to the number of 
feet to be shod. This custom, it is believed, never prevailed 
so generally here as in some other places. Many made shoes 
for themselves and their families. Men's boots and shoes 
were usually made of coarse leather, commonly called cow- 
hide. Occasionally a young man attained the enviable dis- 
tinction of appearing in a pair of calf-skin boots made by a 
regular workman. In this department of dress, as in others, 
in respect to style and expense, the past and the present ex- 
hibit a remarkable contrast. 

We only add, a marked and general revolution in house- 
hold labor has been eft'ected since the days of our mothers 



60 HISTORY OF "WAYNE COUNTY. 

and grandmothers. The substitution of cotton for flax, and 
of the various kinds of labor-saving machinery for hand- 
cards and family sjDinning-wheels and looms, has vastly 
lightened the labor of Avomen. One of the results of these 
improvements is the opportunity they afford for mental and 
intellectual culture. That the mass of American women duly 
improve these opportunities will hardly be affirmed. 

In confirmation of what has been said in relation to the des- 
titution of early settlers, and of the difficulty of obtaining com- 
fortable clothing, an old settler in a northern township of this 
county writes : " I remember when I got the first pair of boots 
I ever had. I got them to travel in when I went abroad to 
preach. I was called proud because I had boots. Women also 
who wore checked cotton dresses every day, were called proud. 
We then had no idea how people would dress as soon as they 
were able. On account of the difficulty of protecting sheep 
from the wolves, few were kept; and many families were un- 
able to supply themselves with woolen clothes. For men's and 
boys' winter clothing, recourse was had to tanned and dressed 
deer-skins. When grown stiff by getting wet, they were 
limbered by whipping them on a log or a post. Some wore 
coats made of undressed skins." 

From another northern township an old settler writes: "I 
have frequently seen families go to meeting barefoot. I have 
often heard it said of a preacher on the circuit when this was 
a wilderness, that the people went to hear their ' new preacher' 
on a week day. Being neatly dressed, and Avearing a pair of 
fine boots, they thought him too much of a fop to preach. 
After he had closed his sermon, a laboring man who had left 
his field and come to meeting barefoot, got up and gave a 
warm and stirring exhortation, under the effects of which a 
good old brother shouted, ' Lord ! send us more barefooted 
preachers.' " 

It is presumed this anecdote, kindly furnished by our friend, 
was intended simply as an illustration of the destitute con- 
dition and some of the characteristics of the early settlers 
and not at all as justifying the vulgar prejudices indulged by 
some in those daj^s against persons better dressed than them- 
selves. Happily the days have gone by when "good clothes" 



SUGAR MAKING. 61 

are regarded by any as a badge of dishonor, or as evidence of 
one's unfitness for any position or calling. Many a poor, per- 
haps shoeless pioneer has, by hard labor and proper economy, 
become a "lord of the soil," and, if yet living, is himself one 
of that class upon whom he once looked with envy or distrust. 

Sugar Making. 

'Not until after the settlers had supplied themselves with 
the more needful articles of clothing and with edibles of 
various kinds, did wheat bread become a common article of 
food. It had not been " daily bread," but had been eaten 
only occasionally, as on Sundays and w^hen visitors came. 
Then one would get a little of this luxury, with some "store 
coffee." Fortunately, there was not the same lack of sweet- 
ening material. The sugar maple furnished an abundance 
of sugar and molasses. 

Trees were "tapped" in various ways. Generally a notch 
was cut into a tree with an ax, or a hole bored with an auger, 
below which a spile, or spout, was inserted to conduct the 
sap into a trough. Troughs were made from easy splitting 
trees 12 to 15 inches in diameter. They were cut into pieces 
about two feet long, w^hich w^ere split exactly through the 
center. Of each of these halves was made with an ax a 
trough, holding about a common pailful of sap. The sap 
was generally carried in pails or buckets to the boiling place, 
and emptied into a reservoir, which was a long trough made 
of a large tree, and holding many barrels. Sometimes a 
number of empty barrels or casks were taken to the bush, 
and used for that purpose. The kettles were hung against 
the side of a large log or fallen tree, and the sap was boiled 
down to a thin syrup and strained. The straining and final 
boiling were usually done in the house. For molasses, it 
was boiled to the proper consistency ; for sugar, until it w^as 
granulated, when it was poured into dishes to cool, and taken 
out in solid cakes. 

Great improvements on the early mode of sugar-making 
have been made. Wooden and tin buckets have been sub- 
stituted for the rough, uncouth trough wdiich could not be 
emptied without w^aste. Kettles are sometimes set in tight 



62 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

furnaces of stone laid in lime mortar. Coals, ashes, and 
other dirt are thus kept out of the kettles, and clean, light- 
colored sugar is produced. The first settlers had no market 
for their surplus sugar and molasses. Each made for himself; 
and there was no store in all the valley ; nor, if there had 
been, would a merchant have taken sugar at a remunerative 
price, even in exchange for goods, as it would not have borne 
transportation to market. The nominal price was 5 or 6 cents 
a pound, though its cash value was probably, for a time, 
scarcely half that price. Those who have spared their sugar- 
trees, have, for several years past, received a fair reward for 
their labor in its production. 

Early Stores. 

One of the great needs of the early settlers was a store. 
This was partially supplied by John Smith, who, in 1810, com- 
menced the keeping of a small store in a log building near 
the present public square, south of Main street. Smith is said 
to have brought his first stock on horseback, on pack saddles, 
from Cincinnati. But the late Cornelius Van Arsdale, an old 
merchant in Eaton, Ohio, has been heard to say he sold to 
Smith his first goods. These were probably the goods sup- 
posed to have been brought from Cincinnati on horseback. 
The early merchants got their supplier from that town. Goods 
were brought on wagons over roads almost impassable ; the 
time required to make a trip being from about six to ten days. 

Although the inhabitants rejoiced at the establishment of a 
store, the great expense at which goods were transported, the 
high prices necessarily charged for them, and the low prices of 
produce so far from market, made it almost impossible for some 
to purchase tFie goods they most needed. The following is a 
statement of prices, as found in Dr. Plummer's History of 
Richmond : 

" In 1810, bacon sold at 2| cents per pound ; corn, 20 to 25 cents 
per bushel ; but there was a season of great scarcity, when it 
sold for $1.25 per bushel — probably in 1819. Sugar was manu- 
factured from the sugar-tree in large quantities, and sold here 
at 3, 4, and 6 cents per pound, while hogsheads of it were 
taken to the South in exchange for raw cotton, which was in 



EARLY STORES. 63 

great demand here. It was spun and woven by the women, 
and the fabrics were sold at the stores. Butter for a long time 
sold at 3, 4, and 6 ceuts per pound; wheat at 37J to 50 cents; 
oats, in 1820, were 8 cents per bushel. Apples, at the earliest 
periods, were brought from Redstone, Pa., by way of Cincin- 
nati, and sold at $1 to $1.50 per bushel. 'Many a time,' said 
an old woman, ' have I paid Robert Morrisson fifty cents a yard 
for muslin, which can now be bought for eight and ten cents ; 
and I paid for it, too, with butter and sugar at six cents a 
pound.' " 

"With produce at these low prices, farmers had to pay for 
goods at the highest rates. Common calico cost 37J cents a 
yard ; other fabrics, as well as tea, cofl'ee, etc., in proportion. 
It required about a bushel of oats to buy a pound of nails; a 
bushel of wheat, or two bushels of corn, to buy a yard of 
calico or a pound of coftee. 

Smith's store, inside, would be regarded, by most of our 
readers, as a curiosity-shop. Here was a rude counter ; there 
were a few shelves fixed up to the log wall. On these were 
seen packages of Barlo.w knives, with a sample knife outside 
for a sign ; sheep-shears done up in the same manner ; also 
gimlets, augers, etc. There were sickles wherewith to cut the 
first crops of wheat; hair sieves, trace chains, blind bridles, 
curry-combs, and numerous other necessaries for the farmers. 
Nor were the wants of their wives and daughters forgotten. 
They there found calico, fine cambric, cap-stuft', pins, needles, 
etc. Here were sold some of the first wedding garments for 
the settlers' daughters; and here was kept also a small stock 
of imported broadcloth, but rather too fine for many to wear. 
Occasionally a young man who wished to appear in a coat of 
blue cloth, with yellow metal buttons, a high and rolling col- 
lar, and a forked tail, after the fashion of those days, got his 
outfit here. Smith increased his stock, from time to time, to 
supply the demand of the constantly increasing population ; 
and being for several years the only merchant in the county, 
he acquired an extensive and a lucrative trade. 

Smith's place was considered the center of business ; and, 
with a town in prospect, he erected a frame store building. In 
this, it is thought, he made a slight mistake. Robert Morris- 



64 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

son, a brother-in-law of Jeremiah Cox, having solil his farm 
on Middle Fork, bought of Cox a piece of land where was a 
spring. A part of this ground is the present site of the Rob- 
inson Machine Works. On this laud he built a small frame 
house fronting on the road from Cox's house to his mill, and 
near what is now Main street. In this house he started a store. 
Smith soon perceiving that trade was gravitating toward Mor- 
risson's corner, put up a frame building opposite, on what is 
now known as Mason's corner, where Elliott & Co.'s furniture 
store lately stood, [destroyed a few months ago by fire.] Smith 
had now competition. But this was soon temporarily inter- 
rupted. Morrisson's house and household goods were destroyed 
by fire. His store goods, kept in the same building, had been 
removed to Smith's store, he having formed a partnership witli 
Smith. The partnership, however, was dissolved immediately 
or soon after the fire. 

Beflections on Pioneer Life. 

The history of pioneer life generally presents only the dark 
side of the picture. The toils and privations of the early 
settlers were not a series of unmitigated sufi'erings. They had 
their joys as well as their sorrows. The addition of each new 
acre of their " clearings " brought with it fresh enjoyment, 
and cheered them on in the pursuit of their ultimate object, an 
unincumbered and a happy home. They were happy also in 
their fraternal feelings; or, as one expressed it, "the feeling of 
brotherhood — the disposition to help one another;" or, in the 
language of another, " Society was rude and uncultivated ; yet 
the people were very friendly to each other, quite as much so 
as relatives are at the present day." 

We could hardly endure the thought of exchanging our 
splendid and comfortable carriages for the rude ones of our 
fathers and grandfathers, which served the various purposes of 
visiting, and of going to mill and to " meeting " — (churches 
they had not;) yet who doubts that families had a "good 
time" when they made a visit to a "neighbor" at a distance 
of several miles through the woods, on an ox-sled ? Our 
mothers were clad in homespun of their own make ; and not 
a few yet remember the " glad surprise " when fathers, on their 



REFLECTIONS ON PIONEER LIFE. 65 

return from market, presented to their faithful helpmates a six- 
yard calico dress pattern for Sunday wear. And we presume 
the wearer was in quite as devotional a frame of mind, and en- 
joyed Sabbath exercises quite as well, as she who now flaunts 
her gorgeously trimmed silk of fifteen or twenty yards, made 
up in a style transforming the wearer into "the likeness" of 
something never before known " above " or " on the earth 
beneath," and altered with every change of moon. 

The people were happy in their families. The boys, having 
labored hard during the day, sought rest at an early hour. 
Parents had the pleasure of seeing their sons acquiring habits 
of industry and frugality — a sure prognostic of success in life. 
The " higher civilization " had not yet introduced, 

"In every country village, where 
Ten chimney smokes perfume the air, 
\ Contiguous to a steeple," 

those popular modern institutions — the saloon and the billiard- 
room, in which so many youth now receive their principal train- 
ing. Fewer parents spent sleepless nights in anxious thought 
about their " prodigal sons," or had their slumbers broken by 
the noisy entrance of these sons on returning from their mid- 
night revels. They saw no clouds rising to dim the prospect 
of a happy future to their children. Never were wives and 
mothers more cheerful than when, like the virtuous woman 
described by Solomon, " they laid their hands to the spindle, 
and their hands held the distafi';" or when, with their knitting- 
work or sewing, and baby, too, they went — unbidden-, as the 
custom was — to spend an afternoon with their " neighbor 
women," by whom they were received with a hearty, uncere- 
monious welcome. The " latch-string was out" at all times; 
and even the formality of knocking was, by the more intimate 
neighbors, dispensed with. 

Nor did they lack to[)ics of conversation at these visits. 
Prominent among them were their domestic afiairs — their 
manifold industrial enterprises and labors — and the anticipated 
rewards of their toils and privations. Their conversation, some 
may suppose, evinced no high degree of intellectual culture ; 
yet, as an indication of such culture, surely it would not suffer 
in comparison with the gossip of many of our modern educated 
ladies at their social gatherings. 



66 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 



Life on the Twelve 3Iile Purchase, 1810 to 1814. 

The following letter from Mrs. Rebecca Julian, widow of 
Isaac Julian, and sister of the late Judge Hoover, was pub- 
lished, in 1854, in the Wayne County Journal, printed at Center- 
ville : 

" The country around us was an entire wilderness, with here 
and there a small cabin, containing a small family. We were 
nearly all new beginners at that time, and although we had 
to work almost day and night, we were not discouraged. 

" "We were in fine spirits until the battle was fought at Tip- 
pecanoe by General Harrison and the Indians. After that, we 
lived in continual fear, and passed many sleepless nights. "Well 
do I recollect how I kept my head raised off of my pillow, in 
listening, expecting the savages to come and take our scalps. 
"We had every reason to believe that such would be the case, 
as they were frequently to be seen scouting all around us. At 
length the time arrived when two men were stationed at our 
fort for our protection. My husband also enlisted and served 
three mouths as a soldier, but was not called out from the fort. 
"We were truly thankful that there was no fighting to be done, 
as we were then few in number, and completely in the power 
of the enemy. But it is evident they intended harming only 
such persons as they thought hostile to them. A young man 
by the name of Shortridge was killed by the Indians about 
three miles from our fort. He had on at the time a portion of 
the dress of another man, who had made threats against them, 
and it is supposed they mistook him for the latter. In the 
spring following Charles Morgan and his two half-brothers 
were killed at their sugar-camp, scalped, and one of them 
thrown into the fire. This happened about six miles from our 
residence. This was quite alarming; we knew not what to do ; 
we gathered ourselves in small groups in order to hold coun- 
sel. Finally, we concluded to leave our new homes; which 
we did, time after time, for the space of two years. We were 
grateful, indeed, to see peace returning, so that we could again 
enjoy our homes. 

" There were many and serious trials in tlie beginning of 
this country with those who settled amid the heavy timber, 



*ii>i5j'- 




Stro 



,ri*9* 




(^yz^^^ c cxt^ ^z<^ 



i'^ '. 



LIFE OX THE TWELVE MILE PURCHASE. 67 

having nothing to depend on for a living but their own indus- 
try. Such was our situation. However, we were blest with 
health and strength, and were able to accomplish all that was 
necessary to be done. Our husbands cleared the ground, and 
assisted each other in rolling the logs. We often went with 
them on tliese occasions, to assist in the way of cooking for the 
hands. We had first-rate times, just such as hard-laboring 
men and women can appreciate. We were not what would 
now be called fashionable cooks; we had no pound cakes, 
preserves, or jellies; but the substantials, prepared in plain, 
honest, old-fashioned style. This is one reason why we were 
80 blessed with health — we had none of your dainties, nick- 
nacks, and many fixings that are worse than nothing. There are 
many diseases that we never even heard of thirty or forty years 
ago, such as dyspepsia, neuralgia, and many others too tedious 
to mention. It was not fashionable at that time to be weakly. 
We could take our spinning-wheels and walk two miles to a 
spinning frolic, do our day's work, and, after a first-rate sup- 
per, join in some innocent amusement for the evening. We 
did not take very particular pains to keep our hands white; we 
knew they were made to use to our advantage ; therefore we 
never thought of having hands just to look at. Each settler 
had to go and assist his neighbors ten or fifteen days, or there- 
abouts, in order to get help again in log-rolling time — this was 
the only way to get assistance. 

"I have thought proper to mention these matters, in order 
that people now may know what the first settlers had to un- 
dergo. We, however, did not complain half as much as people 
do now. Our diet was plain ; our clothing we manufactured 
ourselves; we lived independent, and were all on an equality. 
I look back to those by-gone days with great interest. Now 
how the scene has changed ! Children of these same pioneers 
know nothing of hardship; they are spoiled by indulgence, 
and are generally planning ways and means to live without 
work." 



68 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 



Education; Schools. 

Though struggling under the pressure of poverty and priva- 
tion, tlie early settlers planted among them the school-house and 
the church at the earliest practicable period. So important an 
object as the education of their children they did not defer 
until they could build more comely and convenient houses; 
they were for a time content with such as corresponded with 
their rude dwellings. The first school -houses were built of 
logs, and with tire-places and chimneys like those of log 
dwelling-houses, and were roofed in the same manner. 

An old resident of Franklin township thus describes the first 
school-house built in Hillsborongh, and the first in which 
he ever attended school: The floor of the school-room and 
that of the loft were both made of split puncheons ; the door 
of split clapboards, and fastened by a wooden latch raised 
by a string hanging outside. The fire-place was made by 
cutting an aperture in one side about ten feet wide, and 
building the place out about four feet with logs up to the 
mantel ; then with poles instead of split sticks, drawn in to 
about 3 to 5 feet at the top, and daubed with clay, the chim- 
ney being outside. The back wall and sides of the fire-place 
were made by beating down clay about 18 inches thick, and 
2|- feet high. The hearth was made of the same material. 
A large, green back-log, requiring the united strength of 
teacher and several large boys, was rolled into the fire-place, 
and a small one was put on the top, and another before, and 
the middle filled up with small wood. 

Rough benches of split logs extended from one side of the 
fire-place around through the room to the other side of the 
fire-place. On these the scholars were seated, facing the fire, 
the teacher standing at one end of the circle. Sometimes 
boys, to get near the fire without standing before others, would 
step up on the bank of clay and walk around behind the fire, 
leaning their backs against the logs of the chimney, putting 
their feet forward over the back-log to the tire, and studying 
their lessons by the light coming down the chimney. 



education; schools. 69 

The ^Yritiug-desk was a long slab hauled from a distant 
saw-mill, fastened on long pins driven into auger holes in the 
logs, and slanting downward from the wall. The window 
was made by cutting a hole through the logs just above the 
writing-table, and putting in an old newspaper greased with 
lard for window-lights. In a cold day ink would freeze in 
the pen before a line was written. Pens were made of goose 
quills. 

The school books used were Webster's American Spelling 
Book, some reading book, and an arithmetic. A grammar 
book, a geography, or an atlas, the scholars had never seen. 

The children's dinners, too, were very unlike those of chil- 
dren at the present day. Their frozen corn-bread was some- 
times thawed on the dirt hearth. This bread, or " corn 
dodger," as it was called, in one hand, and sometimes a piece 
of wild turkey or deer's meat in the other, were eaten for 
dinner. 

Schools were not then regulated by law. A subscription 
paper, stating the price of tuition per scholar for the term pro- 
posed, was circulated, and each person affixed to his name the 
number of scholars he would send. If a sufficient number 
were obtained, the school would commence. Teachers were 
often paid in produce, many of their employers being unable 
to pay in money. 

Not only was the course of instruction limited to those few 
primary branches, spelling, reading, writing, and arithmetic; 
the qualitications to teach even these successfully were gener- 
ally wanting. Only the simpler parts of arithmetic were 
taught by most of the teachers ; and the mathematical ambi- 
tion of many pupils was satisfied when they could "cj'pher" 
to the end of the " Single Rule of Three," which, in the old 
arithmetics, came before Fractions. Nor did some parents 
think any higher attainment in this branch necessarj' for their 
sous, except the knowledge of computing interest, which some 
of them might possibly, at some time in their lives, have occa- 
sion to practice. 

The ??ia/?7ier of teaching and conducting a school in those 
days is also worthy of note. "Writing, in some schools, was not 
required to be done at any fixed hour, nor by all at the same 



70 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

time. Children could hardly be expected to be able to make 
their own pens — none but goose-quill pens being used — nor, 
indeed, were many teachers competent to do it properly. These 
pens also required frequent mendings. To make and mend the 
pens and " set copies " for ten, twenty, or thirty pupils, took no 
small portion of a teacher's time, and was often done during 
reading and other exercises, in which the worst mistakes 
escaped the observation of the teacher. To avoid this, some 
teachers did this work before or after school hours. The in- 
troduction of the metallic pen and the printed copy-book is a 
valuable improvement, saving to the teacher much time and 
labor, and furnishing the pupils with good and uniform 
copies. 

Nor had the blackboard been invented ; or, if it had, it was 
not known in the rural districts. Kor were scholars taught 
arithmetic in classes. They got the attention and assistance of 
the teacher as they could. Voices were heard from different 
parts of the room : " Master, I can't do this sum ;" or, " Please 
show me how to do this sum." These, with questions asking 
permission to "go out," to "go and drink," etc., which, in 
some schools, were, to use a parliamentary phrase, " always in 
order;" the teacher going about the room to "help" the 
scholars, or to do their work for them ; and scholars running 
to the teacher to ask him how to pronounce the hard words in 
the spelling and reading lessons; — all these, and other things 
that might be mentioned, kept the school-room in a continual 
bustle. There were, however, some good teachers then ; and 
there are many now who answer too nearly the foregoing de- 
scription ; yet a comparison of the schools of the present time 
with those of fifty years ago shows a vast improvement. 

Where, when, or by whom the first school in the county was 
kept, is not easily ascertained ; it was probably within or near 
the present limits of Wayne township. There was in Indiana 
territory no school system established by law. All was done 
on the " voluntary " plan. The men of each neighborhood 
would join in puttiiig up a log house. Every man paid only 
for the tuition of his own children — of such number as he was 
pleased or able to send. There was then no grumbling by any 
one at being obliged to pay for " schooling others' children." 



RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES. 71 

There are still, doubtless, not a few in every place who would 
rejoice at the re-adoption of that part of the old plan — who 
have never yet been able to see how their individual interests 
have been promoted by the general diffusion of learning. The 
General Government acted wisely in setting apart a section of 
land in every township, the proceeds of which are to be appro- 
priated to the support of common schools in the township. 
And the state has, with equal wisdom, provided to supply the 
deficiency by taxation, thus making the schools free to all who 
wish to avail themselves of their advantages. 

Religious Societies. 

The early establishment of religious institutions in new set- 
tlements is a prominent feature in the history of this country. 
The school-house and the house of worship are erected almost 
simultaneously in every community. Of the different religious 
denominations in this county, the Friends were at first the 
most numerous, and are so still in some townships, though the 
first church, organized in the county is said to be that of the 
Baptists on the Elkhorn creek, formed in 1806 or 1807, about 
6 miles south of Richmond, now in the township of Boston. 
The Friends next established a meeting, and built a log meet- 
ing-house in 1807, near the site of the present large brick 
house in the north-east part of the city of Richmond. The 
first meeting-house in nearly every settlement was built of 
logs. Some of them were warmed by placing in the center a 
large box or iron kettle tilled with dirt, and making on it a 
fire of wood or charcoal. A second house was sometimes 
built of logs, generally improved in appearance by having the 
logs hewed on the outside and inside. 

[A particular notice of the several religious organizations in 
the county may be found in the historical sketches of their 
respective townships.] 



72 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

The Indian Troubles. 

The war spirit which had been excited, and kept np for a 
long period, by conflicts between the whites and the Indian 
tribes in the ISTorth-western Territory, had not long slum- 
bered — perhaps had not been entirely allayed — when the 
former began their settlements in the valleys of Whitewater. 
This warfare, there is reason to believe, was not, as some 
have supposed, wholly a " conflict between civilization and 
barbarism." Many acts of savage barbarity recorded in the 
history of the early settlements, were the outbreaks of resent- 
ments transmitted by those who had suffered injustice at the 
hands of half-civilized white men, or were provoked by some 
evil-disposed white men at the time. Judge Hoover, re- 
ferring to some of the depredations and murders committed 
by the Indians, says : " Candor, however, compels me to say, 
that, as is usually the case, we Christians were the aggress- 
ors," It must be confessed, however, that many of these 
Indian atrocities appear to have been committed in cold 
blood — at least without any immediate provocation. 

The early settlers were much annoyed by the Indians. 
The}^ were often frightened by their suspicious appearances 
and open menaces ; and these fears were strengthened by 
actual murders committed in various parts of the territory, 
one of which is related by Rev. Mr. Smith in his "Miscel- 
lany," in substance, as follows : A man named Jones, re- 
turning from hunting, found his wife terribly frightened by 
the menaces of an Indian who was plundering the house. 
The Indian, on the approach of Jones, rushed out and made 
ofi', and Jones shot him as he ran, inflicting a severe, though 
not mortal wound. The Indian escaped and reached his people. 
In a few days a delegation of Indians came to the white settle- 
ment and demanded redress. The whites were so well acquaint- 
ed with the Indian character, that they knew an amicable set- 
tlement must be made, or the Indians would take vengeance ; 
and perhaps some of their women and children would be the 
sacrifice. The white men met for consultation, and appointed 
Esquire Rue, Wm. L. "Williford, and George Smith, as com- 
missioners to treat with the Indians. The Indians demanded 



THE INDIAN TROUBLES. 73 

blood from the white man. The commissioners pleaded that 
the Indian had been the aggressor. In view of this fact, 
the Indians proposed to take a horse. A horse was accord- 
ingly purchased for them, and they were pacified. 

Mr. Smith recollects having heard an Indian relate the 
first one of several instances of his taking the lives of white 
persons. At the age of about fourteen, he was permitted to 
accompany a party of " braves " going to a white settlement 
to scalp and plunder, on a promise that he would be brave. 
The first night, he and another young Indian were sent to 
reconnoiter a cabin. They returned and reported that there 
were in it but a man and woman. They were ordered to go 
back and kill them. They returned to the cabin, and shot 
them through an opening of the jambs, entered the cabin and 
scalped them, and returned to their comrades with their 
bloody trophies. This young Indian was thenceforth a brave 
among the warriors. 

Many of the depredations upon the early settlers of Ken- 
tucky were committed by Indians from what is now the state 
of Indiana. At their village in Old Town, in what is now 
Delaware county, about five miles from Muncie, and near 
' White river, white men were tortured to death at the stake 
by a slow fire, while their fiendish captors danced around 
them. Mr. Smith says he visited the spot after the Indians 
had left the village, and saw the stake still standing, and 
some of the firebrands were yet to be seen. 

In 1811, John Shortridge was shot by an Indian south of 
the present town of Germantown, and about a mile east of 
Milton, while riding on horseback in company with George 
Ish. This, however, is said to have been done by mistake. 
The Indian had had some difficulty with a man by the name 
of Isaiah Drury. Shortridge, having on Drury's overcoat, 
was mistaken for the owner, and shot on his white horse. He 
was carried about a mile to a fort which had been built half 
a mile south of where Germantown now is. Word having 
been sent to the fort north [13oyd Fort], Samuel K. Boyd and 
Larkin Harding went down, and attended Shortridge until 
his death, the next day. For the want of boards to make a 
cotfin, puncheon floor plank were used for the purpose. 



74 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Charles Morgan, residing near the stream now called Mor- 
gan's creek, and two boys, or youth, his half-brothers, named 
Beesly, were killed near a sugar-camp by Indians in the 
evening. The leader, or principal in this murder, is sup- 
posed — perhaps generally — to have been the notorious In- 
dian, John Green. This supposition is probably based upon 
the fact that a mutual hatred existed between him and Mor- 
gan. The writer has been informed upon authority which he 
can not doubt, that Morgan, under the apprehension that 
Green was meditating his murder, intended to take the life 
of Green in order to save his own, and that he once started 
from home with the avowed intent of waylaying his adver- 
sary for this purpose. Although Green probably had evil 
designs against Morgan, and perhaps was accessory to the 
murder, there is strong presumptive evidence that he was not 
present when it was committed. The suspected murderers, 
four in number, were traced toward Muncietown and over- 
taken, and one of them was shot ; the others escaped. Mor- 
gan and his brotliers were all scalped. The murder was 
committed in the spring of 1813. This occurrence induced 
many families to take shelter in the forts erected for their 
protection. 

Horses were sometimes stolen by the Indians, and other 
depredations upon the property of the white inhabitants 
committed ; but it is believed that the only murders com- 
mitted by them are the two here mentioned. In a few 
instances, the lives of Indians have been taken, or assaults 
have been made upon them for that purpose, by way of 
retaliation for injuries. 

In 1811, by order of the General Government, an expedi- 
tion wa« sent out against the Indians. In this camjiaign 
was fought the memorable battle of Tippecanoe, near the 
Wabash, on the 7th of November, 1811. But, although the 
Indians were compelled to yield to the superior force of the 
army under Gen. Harrison, their vindictive spirit was not 
subdued. And it was evident, before the Declaration of 
"War against Great Britain in 1812, that some of the tribes 
were not disposed to remain at peace with the white people, 



THE INDIAN TROUBLES. 75 

and that in the event of a war with Great Britain, they would 
give aid to that power. 

Scarcely had hostilities between the two countries com- 
menced before these apprehensions were realized; and it 
became necessary for the inhabitants to provide means of 
safety. The expedient adopted was the building of forts and 
block-houses by the people of the several settlements. These 
forts, or stockades, were made of two rows [sometimes but 
one. row] of split timbers 12 to 14 feet long, planted in the 
ground 2J or 3 feet deep. The timbers of the second row 
•were so placed as to cover the cracks of the first. Small 
cabins were erected inside of the stockades for the accom- 
modation of the families. " Usually," says the writer of this 
description, " one block-house was built in each fort. These 
block-houses were two stories high, the upper story project- 
ing over the lower, say two feet, with port-holes in the floor 
of the projection, so that the men could see to shoot the 
Indians if they succeeded in getting to the walls of the 
block-house. There were also port-holes in the walls of the 
upper and lower stories, through which shooting of much 
execution could be performed as the foe was advancing." — 
[W. a Smith:] 

It is said by those who assisted in their erection, and occu- 
pied them, that the block-house was at a corner of the fort, 
the second story extending on two sides several feet beyond 
the marked boundaries of the fort. The projection of the 
second story beyond the walls of the first, was generally 
between three and four instead of two feet. The block- 
house thus standing out a few feet beyond the walls of the 
fort, gave ample range to shoot any person approaching the 
fort on two sides. And, by placing another block-house in 
the diagonally opposite corner of the fort, tl^e other two sides 
of the fort were similarly guarded. 

During the war of 1812, Indian alarms were frequent, and 
the inhabitants were kept constantly in a state of disquiet. 
The lands purchased in 1809, called the "Twelve Mile Pur- 
chase," were settled rather slowly. A few settlements were 
commenced before the lands were surveyed. But during the 
war few ventured far beyond the older settlements. Eotwith- 



76 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

standing forts and block-houses were built for the protection 
of the inhabitants, many, especially those in the more sparsely 
settled places, left their new homes, and removed to places 
of greater security. Some took up a temporary abode among 
the denser population of Wayne township ; others passed the 
state line into Ohio. 

After the series of successes which attended our arms 
against the British and the Indians, among which was the 
capture, b}^ Commodore Perry, of the British fleet on Lake 
Erie in 1813, the Miamis, Pottawattamies, and other tribes, 
sued for peace with the United States. An armistice was. 
agreed on; and in July, 1814, a council was held at Green- 
ville, Ohio, where a treaty of peace was negotiated by Gen. 
Wm. H. Harrison and Gov. Lewis Cass, commissioners on 
the part of the United States. There were present at this 
council about 4,000 souls, chiefly Miamis, Weas, Delawares, 
Shawnees, and Wyandots. 

To the incidents connected with the war of 1812, related 
in the foregoing pages, it is deemed proper to add, that this 
war was a source of much trou])le to the Friends. They were 
much harassed on account of their refusal to do military 
duty. Some were repeatedly drafted and fined ; and their 
property was sold at an enormous sacrifice to pay the fines. 
A valuable wagon, for instance, was sold at auction for five 
dollars, and various other kinds of property in about the 
same proportion. "Four young men were imprisoned in the 
county jail in winter; and to extort from them a pron.ise of 
compliance, fire was denied them. Their suft'erings must 
have been intolerable but for the partial relief aflbrded by 
Dr. David F. Sackct, the county Recorder, and Jesse Bond, 
then living where Earlham College now is ; the former hand- 
ing hot bricks through the grates, and the latter blankets. 
"Suits," says Judge Hoover, "were subsequently In'ought 
against the oflicers for false imprisonment. The trials were 
had in Brookville, in Franklin county. They all recovered 
damages ; but I have every reason to believe that the whole 
of the damages and costs was paid out of moneys extorted 
from others of the Friends. To cap the climax of absurdity 
and outrage, the gentlemen oflScers arrested an old man 



CONDITION OF THE SETTLERS AFTER THE WAR. 77 

named Jacob Elliott, and tried him by a court-martial for 
treason, found him guilty, and sentenced him to be shot! 
but gave him a chance to run away in the dark, they firing 
oft" their guns at the same time." Many other instances of 
cruelty to these people might be given. 

Condition of the Sdllers after the War. 

Peace ended the Indian alarms, but it did not bring pros- 
perity to the settlers. They returned to their lands and re- 
sumed their labors; but their struggles against poverty were not 
ended. They were remote from market; consequently goods 
were high and farmers' produce was low. The day-books of 
an early merchant in Kichmond, embracing the years from 
1818 to 1822, show the following prices : 

Philip Harter, the early tavern keeper, stands charged with 
cotton yarn at $1 per lb. ; brown shirting, 43| cents per yard ; 
John McLane, by J. Albertson, 1 handsaw, $3 ; 2 pr. butt 
hinges, at 50c. Cornelius Eatclift", 1 lb. powder, 62|c. ; 5 lbs. 
shot, at 18|c.; 1 skimmer, 37|c. Stephen Cox, 3 yds. steam 
loom shirting, at 62^0. Francis Clark, 27 lbs. iron, at 14c. 
"We find tea charged at §2.50 per lb. ; pepper, at 75c. ; powder, 
75c.; 1 set knives and forks, $3.75 ; 1 quart measure, [tin,] 
31 jc. ; 1 pint measure, 18|c. ; window glass, [7 by 9 in those 
days,] 10 cents per light; knitting needles, 12^c. [per set, 
probably ;] a Jews' harp, 12Jc. ; calico, at 50c. ; 1 hot. opodel- 
doc, 50c. Adam Boyd, the early wagon maker and justice, is 
charged to camphor at 37|c. per ounce ; Nathan Hockett, to 
ginger, at 75c. per lb., and 2 oz. assafcetida, at 25c. per ounce. 

Clerks and bookkeepers, in these later days of " business 
colleges," would, we imagine, be not a little puzzled to reckon, 
carry out, and foot up bills or lists of goods charged at 43|, 
37J, 31i, and 18f cents per yard or per pound. And they 
would perhaps wonder why these fractional prices were ever 
affixed to articles of any kind. The young reader will find the 
difficulty attending the old mode of reckoning greatly dimin- 
ished, if he should call 43| cent, 3s. 6d. ; 37^^ cents, 3s. ; 31 J cents, 
2s. 6d.; 18| cents. Is. 6d.; 12^ cents, Is.; 6i cents, 6d., as in 
those states where the dollar was 8s. The Spanish silver coin, 
consisting of the dollar, half-dollar, quarter, eighth, and six- 
teenth, was well adapted to the custom of those times. For 



78 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

example : 4 yds. cloth, at Ss. 6d,, would cost 14s.,=$1.75 ; 6 
yds. calico, at 2s. 6d., 15s.,=$1.87J ; 4 lbs. shot, at Is. 6d. 
6s.;=75 cents. 

Eut the high prices of merchants' goods were but one-half 
of the ftirmer's misfortune; he had to sell the products of his 
farm proportionally as much lower than farmers now do, as 
farmers then paid higher for goods. The low prices of farm 
products at a very early day have been already stated. But 
they continued, many years. Samuel K. Boyd, about the year 
1826, started with a drove of hogs from Jacksonburg for Cin- 
cinnati. He left them at Hamilton, and went to Cincinnati, to 
contract a sale. He was offered but 60 cents per 100 lbs., 
dressed. Unwilling to sell at that price, he drove his hogs 
homo, fed them two months longer, butchered them, and sold 
the pork for 80 cents a hundred. At another time he went 
with a four-horse team, taking 16 barrels of flour, the empty 
barrels having cost 62^ cents. He sold the flour with the bar- 
rels for about 90 cents a barrel. He once went after a load of 
merchants' goods, and took for loading down about 1,000 
pounds of corn meal, which he could not sell at all. He was 
about to throw it into the river, but concluded to give it to the 
poor, and actually peddled it about town among those willing 
to accept it as a gift. And he sold wheat in Richmond, at a 
still later date, for 33 J cents a bushel. Lewis Burk, in 1830, 
bought 500 bushels of corn for $50. 

In some families, more flax and tow linen was made than 
was wanted for summer wear, and the remainder was exchanged 
at the stores for calico or some other kinds of cotton cloth, to 
make dresses for women to wear to meeting, or for other 
necessaries. Many men, as well as their wives and cliildren, 
went barefoot in summer. To procure their salt, several 
neighbors would join in sending a wagon to Cincinnati in the 
fall, carrying maple sugar, deer skins, raccoon skins, oats, etc., 
and perhaps a little money, and returning with a load, chiefly 
of salt, intended for the year's supply. The journey was 
made in about ten days, sometimes in a week. 

The price of labor was nominally 25 to 30 cents a day, 
and of corn 10 to 12 cents a bushel. But even at these prices 
they did not bring money. When wheat was about ripe on 
the Miami, companies of men would be seen going on foot 



CONDITION OF THE SETTLERS AFTER THE WAR. 79 

to Butler Co., Ohio, where harvest hands were paid 50 to 622^ 
cents a day. This, considering the distance to be traveled 
and the shortness of the harvesting season, was earning 
money dearly. Times at length changed for the better. 
Cincinnati became a market for fat hogs and cattle, which 
were sent thither in droves. And about the year 1830, mer- 
chants in some of the towns began to buy pork for packing, 
and farmers were hired to transport the meat to market, and 
returned with merchants' goods ; and thus paid in j)art for 
family necessaries. 

13ut besides supporting their families, their lands were to be 
paid for. Lands were at first bought principally on time. 
The price was $2 per acre. A person could " enter" a quarter 
section [160 acres] by paying $80; the remainder to be paid 
in sums of $80 yearly. If the whole were not paid in five 
years, the claim was forfeited. The land was not liable to 
taxation before the expiration of the five years. As Congress 
sold to no person less than a quarter section, poor men joined 
in the purchase, and divided the land. During the hard 
times that succeeded the war of 1812, in consequence of the 
depreciation of paper money and other causes, many were 
unable to make further payments, and forfeited their lands. 
For the relief of such, Congress passed an act making the 
certificate of entrance receivable on the land it covered, or 
on other Congress land. By a later act, the price of land 
was reduced to $1.25 per acre, cash. Another act allowed 
the division of quarter sections into half-quarters, or lots of 
80 acres each ; so that, with a certificate for the payment 
of $80, and $20 in cash, a person could buy 80 acres. This 
enabled some to save their homes and improvements. Others, 
unable to raise the $20, lost their lands. Speculators, finding 
that certificates were transferable, taking advantage of the 
necessity of these poor settlers, bought their certificates at 
a large discount. Two or more persons were sometimes 
gathering money to buy the same piece of land, which, if it 
became known, would cause a race to the land office at Cin- 
cinnati, to secure the land. Some who had saved one-half 
of the land they had entered, and were striving hard to pay 
for the other half, were defeated by men who had gone to 
the land office and got possession of it. 



80 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 



CIVIL HISTORY. 



Formation and Organization of Wayne County. 

"Wayne County was formed in 1810. It was composed of 
that part of Dearborn county lying east of the Twelve Mile 
Purchase and between the north and south lines of the new 
county, together with that portion of the Purchase lying be- 
tween those lines. The strip west of the Purchase was not ac- 
quired until about the year 1820. The county business was 
done by the county judges, who were Peter Fleming, Aaron 
Martin, and Jeremiah Meek. George Hunt was clerk; John 
Turner, sheriff"; and James Noble, prosecuting-attorney. 

The first court was held February 25, 1811, at the house of 
Richard Rue, three miles south of Richmond. No judicial 
business seems to have been done at this court. The court 
divided the county into two districts or townships, and ap- 
pointed officers for them. For the first district, David Rails- 
back and John Shaw were appointed overseers of the poor; 
Abraham Gaar, John Collins, and Lewis Little, fence viewers. 
For the second district, David Galbraith and George Smith, 
overseers of the poor ; Wm. Fouts, Nathaniel McClure, and 
Robert Hill, fence viewers. A committee was also appointed 
to adjust the accounts of the overseers of the poor, viz : David 
Carson, Timothy Hunt, Samuel Jobe, Jacob Meek, Elijah 
Fisher, and George Holman. 

The next session of the court was held at the same place, 
the next month. A grand jury was for the first time im- 
paneled in the county. The names of the jurors were: Jesse 
Davenport, David Fouts, Joseph Cox, Charles Wright, John 
Burk, Wright Lancaster, Robert Galbraith, Isaac Williams, 
John Smith, Benj. Small, John Townsend, John Burgess, Wm. 
Blunt, Michael Snider, Peter Weaver, Benj. Harvey, Joshua 
Meek, John Beard, Benj. Jarvis, James Gordon, Harvey 
Miller, Lewis Little, Wm. Graham. The court consisted, it is 



LOCATION OF COUNTY SEAT. 81 

said, of Jesse L. Holman, circuit judge; Peter Fleming rand 
Aaron Martin, associates. It is said, also, that the court was 
held in the woods, and the seats consisted of family chairs and 
logs; and that the jurors retired for deliberation to logs at a 
suitable distance. Judge Hoover says, in his Memoir : " One 
of the first courts convened under the shade of a tree, Judge 
Park presiding," The two statements difier as to the presiding 
judge. Probably they refer to courts held at difi'ereut times. 
The names of the jurors, who are said to have sat on the first 
petty-jury trial, are John Benton, John Drake, John Arm- 
strong, iSTathaniel Scire, Thomas Bulla, Samuel Hunt, Harvey 
Druley, David F. Sacket, Joel Ferguson, Benj, Smith, Jesse 
Davenport. 

Location of the County Seat. 

The act of the territorial legislature which formed Wayne 
county in 1810, named Jobn Cox, John Addington, and George 
Holman, as commissioners to locate the county seat, on or be- 
fore the first Monday of the following May, and the house of 
Richard Rue as the place for holding courts until a court- 
house was completed. The late Dr. Plummer, in his "His- 
torical Sketch," quotes from John B. Stitt as follows : 

" At the June terra, 1811, the commissioners appointed by an 
act of the legislature, having failed to discharge their duty ac- 
cording to law, in selecting a seat of justice for the county, the 
court declared their duties ended, and appointed in their stead 
Samuel Walker, Richard Maxwell, and Benj, Harris." 

The natural inference from this statement is, that the first 
commissioners were chargeable with negligence. A difi'erent 
version of this matter, from a reliable source, is as follows : 

Richard Rue and Ephraim Overman were members of the 
territorial legislature of 1810, from the county of Dearborn, of 
which the present county of Wayne formed a part. There 
were then but three counties in the territory, Knox, Clark, and 
Dearborn. Residing within the limits of the present county 
of Wayne, these gentlemen were active in support of the act 
authorizing its formation. The commissioners to locate the 
county seat were John Addington, George Holman, and John 
Cox. The law prescribing their duties and fixing the time and 



82 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

the place of their meeting-, did not reach the court, then held at 
Rue's, until about a month after its publication. On its recep- 
tion, the commissioners were promptly notified to meet. They 
appeared and were qualified, and proceeded to the discharge of 
their duties. 

Instructed by the act to fix the county seat near the geographi- 
cal center, Addington and Holman designated a quarter section 
about three-fourths of a mile north of the present town of Cen- 
terville. Cox dissented, alleging that they were not authorized 
to select land not yet sold by the Government; though it had 
been advertised for sale in the coming October. The court sus- 
tained the views of the minority, refused to receive the report, 
and appointed three other commissioners, as above stated, who 
reported, " That the permanent seat of justice is and shall be 
on the donation of Samuel Woods of 65 acres in the 13th 
township, range 3d, with a small reserve." And the court 
ordered, " that the town in Wayne, or the seat of justice, shall 
be called Salisbury." Smith Hunt, vSainuel Woods, and James 
Brown were appointed trustees to layoff the lots, and Andrew 
Woods and John Meek, Sen., to superintend the building of a 
jail and an estray pen. 

This action of the court was denounced by the friends of the 
central location. The land being within the bounds of the 
county as fixed by the law of the state, they regarded the ob- 
jection that the unsold lands were out of the jurisdiction of 
the court, as utterly invalid, and the decision as a flagrant out- 
rage. A paper was circulated to take the sense of the citizens 
in respect to the legality of the action of the court, designed 
to be presented to the court. The result showed 330 in favor 
of the report of the legislative committee, and 150 approving 
the action of the court. 

A log court-house for temporary use, and a jail of hewed, 
square logs, were built, and were soon followed by a brick 
court-house. 

Salisbury having now become an incorporated town — the 
earliest in the county — and its citizens having secured — per- 
manently, as they supposed — the public buildings, they an- 
ticipated a long and prosperous career. In this, however, they 
were disappointed. Efforts were soon made for the removal 



ORGANIZATION OF TOWNSHIPS. 83 

of tlie county seat to Centervillc. In the midst of the bitter 
strife between the Salisbury and Centervillc parties, ()ri<!;inating 
with the action of the court before mentioned, and lasting 
several years, an act was passed, in 1816, authorizing the re- 
moval of the county seat to Centervillc; provided, however, 
that the citizens furnish, without expense to the county, public 
buildings as good, and of the same dimensions, as those at 
Salisbury. 

After the removal of the county scat, Salisbury was rapidly 
deserted. The few frame and brick buildings were taken 
down, and some of them moved to Richmond. The bricks in 
the building on the south-east corner of Main and Pearl streets, 
known as Ham's corner, were formerly in the court-house at 
Salisbury. There remains nothing on the site indicating that 
a town was ever tliere. The ground on whicli it stood is now 
a part of the farm of Enoch Railsback. 

The early records of the county are incomplete ; and none are 
to be found of a date earlier than 1812. The claims allowed 
that year for wolf scalps amounted to the sum of $12.75, the 
bounty being $1 each. In 1813, the amount was $13. Among 
the names of persons receiving wolf bounties, were those of 
Robert Morrisson and George Shugart. 

The receipts into the treasury in 1815 were as follows: For 
town lots, $34.68. Store licenses, $86.86. Tax on horses, 
$7.39. Slaves, $20. Men of color, $15. First rate lands, 
$23.59; second rate, $292.63; third rate, $53.34. Total, 
$1,265.10, not including fines for breaches of the peace, assault 
and battery, swearing, etc., which were lodged in the hands of 
the sheriflf and clerk. In 1816, wolf claims amounted to $84. 

Organization of Toionships. 

The first Constitution of the State of Indiana was adopted 
in 1816. Certain duties which had been performed by the 
county judges, were by the constitution devolved upon a board 
of county commissioners. The first board, composed of Thomas 
J, Warnian, James Odell, and Thomas Beard, met in Febru- 
ary, 1817. 

The commissioners laid oli" the following six townships, 
which then composed the county : 

Washington, in the south-west corner of the county ; elec- 



84 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

tion to be held at Waterloo. Harrison, east of "Washington, 
to the Ohio state line; election at John Williams's. Jackson, 
north of Washington ; election at Jacksonbnrg. Wayne, east 
of Jackson, to the state line; election at Thomas Lamb's. 
Perry, north-west part of the county. New Garden, east of 
Perry, to the state line. Elections were to be held in June, 
for the election of justices of the peace in the several townships. 

The commissioners appointed for the several townships the 
following officers : 

Inspectors of Elections — Train Caldwell, Washington ; Renne 
Julian, Jackson; Abraham Elliott, Perry; Benj. Harris, New 
Garden ; John Stewart, Wayne ; Joseph Cox, Harrison. Con- 
stables — Reason Davis, Washington; Samuel D. Lothian, 
Jackson; John Bailey, son of Hugh, Perry ; John Whitehead, 
Harrison; Thomas T. Lewis, Wayne; Tense Massey, New 
Garden. Listers — Stephen Griffith, Washington; Major Bod- 
son, Harrison; Ezekiel Leavel, Jackson; Henry Hoover, 
Wayne; Pleasant Harris, New Garden. County Treasurer — 
John Beard. 

At the meeting in May, the commissioners fixed the rates of 
tavern-keepers' charges as follows: For a meal, 25 cents; 
lodging, 6j ; Cognac brandy, rum, or wine, ^ pint, 50 ; whisky, 
J pt., 12|; cider, qt., 12| ; strong beer, qt., 25; horse, night, 
hay and grain, 50; hay only, 25; single feed, 12J. These 
rates were altered from time to time. In 1820, lodguig was 
judged worth 12| cents. Peach brandy was added to the 
liquor fist at 25 cents the ^ pint, just one-half the price of the 
imported liquors. And in 1822, the price of a meal had fallen 
to 18f cents; whisky to 6jc., and peach brandy to 12|c., the 
J pint. Some young readers may wonder why these fractional 
parts of a cent were annexed to the price of an article, and 
how, in paying for it, the exact "change" could be given. 
Those wishing to know are referred to those who lived when 
the circulating coin consisted chiefly of the Spanish silver dol- 
lar, half-dollar, quarter, eighth, and sixj;eenth. Or, let them 
divide 100 cents by 2, 4, 8, and 16, and they need make no in- 
quiry. 

John C. Kibbey was " appointed to clear the old court-house, 
hang the doors, and keep the same in repair;" and John C. 



LOCATION OF COUNTY SEAT — AGAIN. 85 

Kibbey and John Sutherland were continued "commissioners 
to superintend the building of the court-house in the town 
of Salisbury with the same authority they had by virtue of 
their appointment by the court of the county." 

In August, 1817, the commissioners met for the last time at 
Salisbury. It was " ordered, b}^ James Odell and Thomas 
Beard, that the board adjourn to Centerville ; the other com- 
missioner, Thomas J. Warman, dissenting, on the ground of 
the invalidity of the papers accepted at the special meeting in 
July, and executed by the citizens of Centerville, conveying 
the county grounds and buildings; the conditions of the law 
authorizing the removal of the site not having, in his opinion, 
been complied with. At the meeting of Odell and Beard, at 
Centerville, a new bond was executed, signed by twenty-one 
citizens, binding themselves to furnish the county a court- 
house equal in value and convenience to the one then at Salis- 
bury. Their names were, Joseph Ilolman, Wm. Sumner, 
Isaac Julian, Levi Jones, John Maxwell, Lewis Thomas, Xa- 
than Overman, Patrick Beard, James Jenkins, Larkin Rey- 
nolds, Wm. Harvey, Wm. Hosier, Oreenbury Cornelius, John 
Harvey, Francis Culbertson, Jacob N. Booker, Shubael Julian, 
Thomas Jones, Jeremiah Meek, David Galbraith, Robert Cul- 
bertson, Jacob Grifhn, Jesse Ross, David J. Wood, Samuel 
King. [Robert Galbraith's name does not appear among the 
signatures.] 

In the spring of 1818, the court was held at Centerville. 
The next year the question was brought before the court 
whether Salisbury or Centerville was the county seat. Sa3'8 
Dr. Plnramer : "The presiding judge, John Watts, w^as ab- 
sent. The associate judges, William McLane and Jesse Daven- 
port, were of the opposite opinion in this matter. Their de- 
cision was, 'that the seat of justice was permanently estab- 
lished at Salisbury; that the act of December 21, 1816, not 
having a sufficient repealing clause, has not removed it; but 
that the act of January 28, 1816, authorized the court to hold 
their j-n'O tempore session in the town of Centerville, until the 
legislature should otherwise direct.'" As the legislature has 
never otherwise directed, the legal county seat, according to the 
decision of these judges, must still be at Salisbury ! 



86 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

At a meeting of the commissioners as late as 1820, August 
term, opposition to Centerville was manifested. Julian and 
Harris voted to adjourn to Centerville, Enos Grave dissented, 
and entered his j^^^otest on the record, on the ground that the 
law of December 21, 1816, had not been complied with, and 
that consequently the seat of justice remained at Salisbury; 
and he did not sign the proceedings of the commissioners. 
"Wm. Sumner produced a deed for the public square in Center- 
ville. The commissioners accepted the court-house as com- 
pleted, deeming the removal act to have been fully complied 
with by the trustees of Centerville. 



WAYNE COUNTY OFFICIAL EEGISTER. 

County Commissioners. 

Prior to the adoption of the Constitution of 1816, duties now 
devolved upon the board of county commissioners, were per- 
formed by the county judges. The first board held its first 
session at Salisbury, and was composed of Thomas J. War- 
man, James Odell, and Thomas Beard. The term of office was 
three years, and one commissioner was to be elected every year. 
Hence the first commissioners were required so to class them- 
selves as that one should serve for one year, another for two 
years, and the other for three years, that thereafter one should 
be annually elected. Thomas Beard was drawn for one year; 
James Odell for two years; and Thomas J. Warman for three 
years. In the following listithe names of new members only, 
and the years they respectively came into office, are given. If 
in any year the name of no incoming member appears, it may 
be presumed that some one had been re-elected : 

Thomas Beard, James Odell, Thomas J. Warman, came into office in 
1S17; Enos Gi'ave, in the place of Beard, in 1818. Later, the same year, 
Beale Butler, (probably in the place of Odell, resigned.) Isaac Julian, 
1819. Benjamin Harris, 1820. John Jones, 1821. Peter Johnson, 1822. 
William Sumner, 1823. 

In 1824, a board, composed of justices of the peace from the 
several townships, was substituted for tiie commissioners; one 
of the justices being chosen by the board as president. 



WAYNE COUNTY OFFICIAL REGISTER. 87 

In 1824, Barnabas McManus was president. In the same year, Daniel 
Fraley, Jonathan Platts, Lot Bloomfield — some of them probably as presi- 
dent pro tern. In 1826, Lot Bloomfield, Asa M. Sherman. In 1828, 
Samuel Hannah. 

The office of commissioner having been restored, Jonathan Platts, 
Jesse Willetts, and Daniel Reid came into office in 1829. Achilles Will- 
iams, 1831. Jonathan Platts, 1832. John Bishoii, 1833. Gabriel Newby, 
1835. Philip Saville, 1836. Daniel P. Wiggins, 1837. Thomas McCoy, 

1838. Daniel Bradbury, Daniel Clark, 1839. David Commons, 1840. 
Larkin Thornburgh, 1841. Joseph M. Bulla, 1843. Daniel Sinks, 1845. 
William Elliott, 1847. Thomas Tyner, Dillon Haworth, 1848. Daniel B. 
Crawford, 1849. Ezra Scoville, John Stigleman, 1850. John II. llutton, 
1852. Andrew Nicholson, 1854. John H. Hutton, 1855. Edmund Law- 
rence, 1856. Jonathan Baldwin, 1857. Daniel B. Crawford, 1861. Oliver 
T. Jones, 1863. Isaac A. Pierce, 1865. Andress S. Wiggins, 1868. Will- 
iam Brooks, 1870. 

County Judges. 

Wayne county was organized in 1810; and on the 18th of 
December, Peter Fleming, Aaron Martin, and Jeremiah Meek 
were appointed judges of the county court, aud George Hunt, 
clerk, who held the office several years. 

March 25, 1812, William Harland was appointed a judge. Jan. 3, 
1814, Peter Fleming, first judge, Aaron Martin and Jeremiah Meek, 
judges. April 4, 1815, Jo.siah Davidson, associate, in place of Judge Mar- 
tin, resigned. June 12, 1815, David Hoover. 

Appointments after the adoption of the state constitution of 

1816, were made as follows : 

March, 1817, Jesse Davenport, Wm. McLane. February, 1824, John 
Jones, John Scott. Aug., 1829, Caleb Lewis, Beale Butler. In 1830, 
Beale Butler, Asa M. Sherman. March, 1837, Jesse Williams. Feb., 

1839, David Hoover. March, 1842, James R. Mendenhall. Aug., 1845, 
John Beard. Aug., 1848, Abner M. Bradbury. 

By the constitution of 1850, a change was made in the 
judiciary of the state, as will appear from the following list of 
officers : 

Common Pleas and District Judges. 

Nimrod H. Johnson, judge of Wayne Com. Pleas, Oct., 1852. Wm. P. 
Benton, Com. Pleas, Oct., 1856. Jeremiah Wilson, Judge of 6th Judicial 
District, Oct., 1860. John F. Kibbey, March, 1865; re-elected in 1868; 
and is now in office. 

Judges of the Criminal Circuit Court 

Wm. A. Peelle, appointed by the Governor, April, 1867. Nimrod H. 
Johnson, Oct., 1867; died in office. George Holland, appointed May 10, 
1869, and afterward elected; term expires Oct., 1876. 



HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 



Presiding Judges. 

Elijah Sparks, 1815. James Noble, June, 1815. Jesse L. Holman, 
March, 1816. John Test, March, 1817. John Watts, Feb., 1819. Miles 
C. Eggleston, March, 1820. Charles H. Test, Feb., 1830. Samuel Bigger, 
March, 1836. James Perry, Nov., 1840. Jehu T. Elliott, March, 1844. 
Oliver P. Morton, judge C. C, March, 1852. Joseph Anthony, judge C. 
C, March, 1853. Jeremiah Smith, judge C. C, March, 1855. Jehu T. El- 
liott, judge C. C, March, 1856. Siias Colegrove, judge C. C, Feb., 1865. 
Jacob Haynes, judge C. C, elect; term commences Feb., 1872. 

Clerks of Courts. 

George Hunt, March, 1815. David Hoover, Sept., 1819. Samuel Han- 
nah, March, 1831. John Finley, March, 1838. Thomas G. Noble, March, 
1845. Andrew F. Scott, March, 1852. Solomon Meredith, March, 1860. 
Samuel B. Schlagle, March, 1864; died in office. Moses D. Leeson, ap- 
pointed Jan., 1866. Wm. W. Dudley, 1868; now in office. 

Sheriffs of Wayne County. 

John Turner, March 4, 1815. Elijah Fisher, Dec. 25, 1818. Abraham 
Elliott, Sept. 3, 1819. Elias Willetts, Oct. 22, 1821. Samuel Hannah, Oct. 
22,1823. Wm.McLane, Feb., 1826. Jacob R. Fisher, Aug. 28, 1829. John 
Whitehead, Aug. 28, 1830. Solomon Meredith, Aug. 28, 1834. Thomas 
G. Noble, Aug. 28, 1838. William Baker, Aug. 28, 1842. David Gentry, 
Aug. 28, 1844. William Baker, 1848. John C. Page, Nov. 4, 1852. Jesse 
T. Williams, Nov. 12, 1856. Joseph L. Stidham, Nov. 13, 1858. John M. 
Paxson, Nov. 12, 1862. Jacob S. Ballenger, Nov. 13, 1866. Wm. H. 
Study, Nov. 12, 1870. 

Auditors. 

Office established under the constitution of 1850. Francis King; 
Thomas Adams. Benj. L. Mai'tin, Nov. 1, 1855. Sylvester Johnson, Nov. 
1, 1863. Elihu M. Parker, Nov. 1, 1871. 

Itecorders. 

David F. Sackett; James Woods. Henry Beitzell, March 19, 1852. 
Theodore J. Riley, March 18, 1860. Jonathan R. Whitacre, March, 1864. 
Jesse E. Jones, term to commence March, 1872. 

Treaswers. 

Jason Ilam, came into office, 1841. Achilles Williams, 1844. Wm. W. 
Lynde, Aug. 18, 1853. Christy B. Huff, Aug. 13, 1859. Henry B. Rupe, 
Aug. 13, 1863. John Sim, Oct. 30, 1867. » 



WAYNE COUNTY OFFICIAL REGISTER. 89 

Justices of the Peace. 

Prior to the adoption of the state constitution of 1816, all 
judges and justices of the peace were appointed and commis- 
sioned by the Governor. In October, 1809, the year before the 
formation of Wayne county, Jeremiah Meek, Jesse Davenport, 
John Ireland, Abraham Elliott, and John Cox were appointed 
justices of the peace for Dearborn county. After the organ- 
ization of Wayne county, David Hoover, John Ireland, and 
Jesse Davenport were appointed justices for this county. 
Probably other appointments were made before the state gov- 
ernment under the constitution of 1816 was formed, after 
which justices were elected by the people in their respective 
townships. 

It has been impossible to find a complete record of the jus- 
tices of the county since its organization. The following in- 
complete list is taken from the county records. The names of 
the townships in which they were respectively chosen, do not 
appear on the records. 

The number of the year given is that in which the term of 
office commenced : 

1817— Isaac Julian, Isaac Estep, J. Flint, Jolin Nelson, Adam Boyd, 
John Marshall, Ira Hunt, John McLane. 1818— Jacob Hoover. 1820— 
Josiah Bradbury, Jacob N. Booker. 1823— Samuel Taylor. 1824— Eli 
Wright, Wm. Brown, John Finley. 1825— Kichard L. Leeson, Levi Wil- 
letts, Joseph Personett, Wm. Elliott, Lot Bloomfield, Andrew Carrington, 
(probably.) 1826— Edward Starbuck, Daniel Clark, Benj. F. Beeson. 
1827— Jesse Allison, S. G. Sperry, Eleazar Smith, Richard Henderson, Wm. 
Rupey. 1828— Jesse Williams, Edmund Jones, Elijah Lacey, Absalom 
Cornelius, Jesse Willetts, John Stigleman, Jonathan Platts, John D. Rob- 
ertson, James Wickersham. 1829 — Isaiah Osborn, James P. Antrim, 
Joseph Curtis, Wm. Wright, James Beeson, Daniel Strattan, Abner M. 
Bradbury, George Springer, Jehiel R. Lamson, Benj. Beeson, James P. 
Burgess, Lewis R. Strong, Lot Day, Abraham Jefteris. 1830— James 
Baxter, John M. Addleman, Rice Wharton, Wm. Swafford, Jo.seph Flint. 
1831 — John Brady, Samuel Johnson, Edward Starbuck, Rice Wharton, 
Jesse Osborn, Preserved L. W. McKee. 1832 — Jonathan Platts, John 
Bradbury, Samuel G. Sperry, Thomas Cooper. 1834— Absalom Wright, 
Corbin Jackson, Joseph Curtis, Abraham Cuppy, Wm. Lambert, Jacob 
Brooks, Richard Jobes. 1848— George Develin, David Cornelius, Edward 
Wiley, Miles Marshall, Edward C. Lemon, Richard Jobes, John McLucas, 
Ithamar Beeson. 1849— Thomas Wilson, Alfred Moore. 



90 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 



NEWSPAPERS. 

The early history of newspapers in the county is given by 
Dr. John T. Plummer in his " Historical Sketch " published 
in 1857. As he came to Richmond before the first paper 
printed in Richmond was discontinued, he wrote from personal 
knowledge. His sketch, therefore, is regarded as the most re- 
liable source of information, and contains the substance of the 
following history of newspapers in Richmond to the date of 
his book. 

Newspapers in Richmond. 

The first newspaper published in Richmond was the Bich- 
mond Weekly Intelligencer. Dr. Plummer says he had no means 
of ascertaining when it was begun, but a number was certainly 
published so early as December 29, 1821. The printing office 
was on Front street, south of Main. Its editor was Elijah 
Lacey, who had associated with him as publisher John Scott, 
afterward judge, and editor of the Western Emporium^ pub- 
lished at Centerville. It was discontinued, he says, in 1824. 

The second paper was the Public Ledger, the first number 
of which was dated March 6, 1824. Its first editor and pub- 
lisher was Edmund S. Buxton, until JSTovember 11, 1825, when 
it was brought under the firm of Buxton & Wailing, and by 
them continued about a year. It then passed into the hands 
of Samuel B. Walling, the late-named partner, [1826,] and 
was discontinued in June, 1828. It was printed in a small 
one-story frame house on lot 2, Smith's addition. 

A third paper, the Richmond Palladium, was commenced 
January 1, 1831, by Nelson Boon, who conducted it but six 
months, when it passed into the hands of Thomas J. Larsh, 
and was conducted by him eighteen months ; next by David 
P. Holloway one year; by Finley & Holloway two years; by 
John Finley one year. It then [Jan. 1837] passed to David 
P. Holloway and Benj. W. Davis, by whom, under the firm of 
Holloway & Davis, it has been continued to the present time, 



NEWSPAPERS IN RICHMOND. 91 

though edited chiefly for the last ten years by Davis, his part- 
ner having been during this time at the city of Washington. 

The Jeffersojiian was established in 1836 by an association of 
Democrats called " Hickory Club," and edited principally by 
Samuel E. Perkins, afterward a judge of the Supreme Court, 
and one Talcott, a young lawyer. In the fall of 1837, Lynde 
Elliott purchased the establishment, and published and edited 
the paper until 1839, when its publication was suspended, and 
the printing materials became the property of Daniel Reid. 
In the same year, Samuel E. Perkins bought the property of 
Reid, and revived the Jeffersonian, which he edited and pub- 
lished till 1840, when James Elder became its proprietor, by 
whom it w^as published until 1804, from which time its publi- 
cation was for several years suspended. In 1870, Mr. Elder 
revived the paper, or rather, perhaps, established a new one, 
entitled Democratic Herald, which, in 1871, was purchased by 
Wm'. Thistlethwaite, its present proprietor. 

The Indiana i^V^rmer was commenced, in 1851, by Ilolloway 
& Dennis, and was soon discontinued. 

The Broad Axe of Freedom was established in 1855, by Jam- 
ison & Johnson, journeymen printers in the Palladium, oflice. 
It soon changed hands, and, by a succession of proprietors, it 
was continued until the close of 1864, when the press and type 
were purchased by Isaac H. Julian, and the paper merged in 
the Indiana True Hejmblican, previously published by Mr. 
Julian at Centerville, and removed by him to Richmond, Jan. 
1, 1865, when its name was changed to Indiana Radical. It is 
still published by him. 

The Lily, previously published in Kew York city by Amelia 
Bloomer, was transplanted in Richmond, in 1854, and was 
continued by Mary E. Birdsall, a few years, and subsequently, 
for a short time, by Mary F. Thomas, at present a physician 
in Richmond. 

The Independent Press was commenced by Geo. "W. Wood, in 
1861. It was issued as a daily three months, and weekly about 
six months. In 1862, Calvin R. Johnson, Thomas L. Baylies, 
and Robert H. Howard, bought the Press and started The 
Telegram, July 4, 1862. In the fall of 1863, Johnson retired, 
and Baylies about six months after. Howard continued it until 



92 HISTORY OF AVAYNE COUNTY. 

1867, after which Dr. James W. Salter published it about a 
year and a half, and sold it to Alfred G. Wilcox, who took 
into partnership James M. Coe. After about six months, 
Daniel Surface, from Cinciiinati, became a partner; and the 
proprietors assumed the name of the Telegram Company, 
under which name it is still published by Messrs. Surface and 
Coe, Mr. Wilcox having retired soon after the company was 
formed. Mr. Surface, since his first connection with the paper, 
has been its editor. 

The Humming Bird was started by J. E. Avery & Co., May 
5, 1866. It was sold a few months after to A. J. Strickland, 
from whom it passed, in March, 1867, to Crawley & Maag. In 
August, 1869, Crawley retired, and Maag has since been its 
sole proprietor. 

A small quarto literary paper, called the Family Schoolmaster, 
was commenced in Richmond, March, 1839, by Holloway & 
Davis, and ended with its 34th number. 

Newspapers at Centerville. 

In the year 1824, John Scott, who had been associated with 
Elijah Lacey in publishing the Weekly Intelligencer in Rich- 
mond, commenced the publication of the Western Emporium 
at Centerville. How long it was published, we are not in- 
formed. Scott subsequently committed suicide by hanging 
himself, at Logan sport. 

In or about the year 1832, the Western Times was started by 
Septimus Smith. He was a lawyer and for a time probate 
judge ; a man of literary taste and attainments. He was a 
brotlier of the late Oliver II. Smith. Andrew Bulla, son of 
the late Wm. Bulla, was for a while associated with Mr. Smith 
in the publication of the Times. They both died nearlj^ at the 
same time, of consumption. They were succeeded, it is be- 
lieved, by J. A. Hall and Giles C. Smith, the latter being then 
a teacher in the County Seminary, and since a Methodist min- 
ister. Their successor was Nelson Boon, from Eaton, Ohio. 
He, too, died soon after, or in the latter part of 1834. 

About the year 1835, Samuel C. Meredith started the Peo- 
ple's Advocate, Democratic in politics, the previous papers hav- 
ing been very moderately Whig, It was edited for a time by 



NEWSPAPERS IN CENTERVILLE, 93 

James B. Haile, a teacher in tlie Seminary. Meredith, iindiug 
it did not " pay," changed it to a whig paper under the name 
of Wayne County Chronicle. It was edited about a year by 
Elder Samuel K. Hoshour, when, Meredith having removed 
to Illinois, the paper was succeeded by the National Patriot, 
owned by somebody " down East," and edited by Richard Cole. 
Not succeeding well in the enterprise, he soon discontinued the 
publication. He was afterward elected, with another, state 
printer; and has since been a missionary to China. 

Meredith, having returned, began, in 1841, the Wayne 
County Record. Hampden G. Finch was for a time associate 
publisher. John B. Stitt became its editor. 

Early in 1846, the News Letter, a literary paper, was started 
by C. B. Bentley, since, and for a long time, conductor of the 
Brookville Democrat. H. G. Finch soon associated himself with 
Bentley. Many of its leading articles were for some time writ- 
ten by George W. Julian. It was continued but about a year. 

About this time, a monthly religious publication, called, it 
is beHeved, The Reformer, was issued by Elder Benjamin 
Franklin. The term of its existence is not mentioned. 

In 1848, the Free Territory Sentinel was started as an advo- 
cate of the Free Soil movement of that year, by R. Yaile and 
P. Smith. In less than a year its name was changed to the 
Indiana True Democrat. About the time the Sentinel was 
started, Meredith having gone to California, the Record be- 
came the Whig, under the charge of D. B. "Woods and Stitt. 
"Woods being afterward killed in California, a printer named 
Millington took his place with Stitt for a short time. Meredith 
returning, he resumed its publication; but after a few months, 
finding it a losing affair, he sold out, in 1852, to D. P. Hol- 
loway, of the Richmond Palladium. At the close of that year, 
the True Democrat was removed to Indianapolis and took the 
name of Free Democrat. 

Nathan Smith then started the Independent Press, a small 
paper, which survived but a few months; and Centerville was 
for about a year without a newspaper. 

In April, 1854, Hosea S. Elliott started the Wayne County 
Journal, and published also the Class Mate, a religious monthly. 
Both soon died. The Weekly Chronicle was then started by R. 



94 ■ ''history of WAYNE COUNTY. 

J. Strickland and Gr. W. B. Smith, and continued to June, 
1858, when they sold out to W. C. Moreau, who bought a new 
press and started the Ti^ue Hepuhlican. In about three months 
he sold out to Isaac H. Julian, who, as has been elsewhere 
stated, removed it to Richmond. [See p. 91.] 

In 1859, R. J. Strickland commenced a new paper, (or re- 
vived the old one,) under the name of Wayrie Chronicle^ which 
was published at intervals, until 1863, when it was removed to 
Cambridge City. 



ANTISLAVERY HISTORY. 

Log Convention; its Besults. 

Although the early settlers of this county were principally 
from slave states, the antislavery sentiment strongly predom- 
inated. They were mostly of the Society of Friends, a people 
who were generally opposed to slavery. Indeed it was this 
sentiment that induced many of them to seek homes in a free 
state. But scarcely three years from the building of the first 
cabin in the county, the settlers came into conflict with this 
institution. 

The state of Virginia, as has been stated, claimed a right, 
under the first British charters, to the principal part of the 
lands south-west of the Ohio river, and emigrants from that 
state settled very early in the southern border of the territory 
now composing the state of Indiana. The introduction of 
slavery into that part of the state, and the attempt to procure 
the suspension, by an act of Congress, of the antislavery pro- 
vision of the Ordinance of 1787, have been already noticed. 
[P. 24.] Hence it was not strange that the friends of slavery 
should favor the election of a delegate to Congress to repre- 
sent their views, if occasion should require. In this originated 
the convention here described. 

A meeting called " Log Convention" was held in the summer 
or fall of 1808, in the south-west quarter of section 17, town- 
ship 13, range 1 west. [Our venerable informant wishes the place 
thus particularly designated.] The convention, he says, was 



^jf^ '^'HTXt^: 



Kl-S' 






''it t^ 





'■?&' f^jt 



"^■'-^ 



..K>^ 



sv»' 



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^r^^' 



n^cz^^^i-^ 



ANTISLAVERY HISTORY. 95 

80 named from the fact, that hair cloth sofas and easy chairs 
were unknown to the pioneer fathers, who had no softer place 
on which to rest than the logs in the forests. Notice of the 
proposed meeting was given at log rollings ; and at the time 
appointed, the whole neighborhood appeared on the above- 
mentioned spot. 

After a unanimous denunciation of slavery, the convention, 
without a dissenting voice, selected George Hunt, conditionally, 
as their nominee as a delegate to Congress, in opposition to 
Thomas Randolph, spoken of as the candidate of those then 
called by the people of this part of the territory, the " southern 
aristocracy," in the towns of Vincennes, Charleston, and Law- 
renceburg. The convention also appointed Joseph Holman, 
then but twenty years of age, as messenger to go down and 
confer with the settlers on Clark's Grant ; and if their views 
coincided with the views of those whom he represented, and an 
acceptable candidate was there nominated, Hunt's name would 
be withdrawn. 

Young Holman prodeeded forthwith on horseback through 
the "trails" to Charleston; and on his arrival found that a 
meeting had been held, and Jonathan Jennings had been 
selected, who had some days before gone to our settlement. 
Holman remained several days in consultation with the people 
in that section, and, having found the views there entertained 
in harmony with those expressed in the log convention, re- 
turned home. In the meantime, Jennings had made his ap- 
pearance here, but had met a rather cool reception. He was 
called by some a "beardless boy," — who "could n't find his 
way to Washington ;" by others, a " cold potato." At the 
same time. Gen. Dill, Capt. Vance, and other aristocrats in 
Randolph's interest, from Lawrenceburg, the county scat, had 
been here and poisoned the minds of the people against Jen- 
nings. But finding that Randolph would not do, they substi- 
tuted Vance as a more available candidate ; and our nominee. 
Hunt, gave way for him. 

Matters were in this condition on the return of Holman. 
He found the settlers assembled in a little log hut, which Jen- 
nings had entered by stooping, where he was squat down by 
the side wall, when Holman entered to report the result of his 



96 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

mission. Jennings, without any previous introduction, ad- 
dressed him by name, and asked, " What news from Clark's 
Grant ?" Ilohnan was surprised, not knowing the man, and 
did not think proper to tell. One of the company then took 
Holman outside of the house, who gave a satisfactory account 
of his mission, and was there told that the beardless youth sit- 
ting by the door was the nominee of Clark's Grant, who 
"hadn't sense to take him to Washington." They then re- 
paired into the hut. The facts having been whispered round, 
all departed without a word to Jennings, who was treated with 
a most withering indifference. Holman conferred with his 
father; and they both concluded they had "got their foot into 
it," and felt a growing coolness toward Jennings. After talk- 
ing over the matter awhile, they hailed Jennings, who was 
some 300 yards ahead, and behind the rest of the party, who 
had kept aloof from him; and, coming up with him, young 
Holman showed him his circular, and also the charges against 
him. Jennings "riddled up" these so effectually, and demon- 
strated his own merits so clearly, as entirely to dissipate the 
lukewarmness of the Holmans, and enlist them in his favor; 
and in a few days young Holman, assisted by Jennings, 
revolutionized the sentiment of the entire neighborhood. And 
at the election Jennings received all the votes but one — the 
vote of the nominee of the log convention. The subsequent career 
of Jonathan Jennings has given his name a conspicuous place 
in the histor\' of the state of Indiana. 

llie Abolition Movement. 

Subsequently to this early contest, there seems to have been 
no special occasion for an expression of the sentiment of the 
people of this county on the question of slavery, until after the 
commencement of the abolition movement. 

Prior to 1830, (the year not recollected,) Benjamin Lundy 
established at Baltimore, Md., a paper or periodical, styled, 
" Genius of Universal Emancipation" advocating the abolition 
of slavery. He was succeeded, either in the publication of the 
same paper, or a new one, by Wm. Lloyd Garrison. Garrison's 
antislavery sentiments being obnoxious to the people of that 
city, his establishment was broken up, and he was for a while 



ANTISLAVERY HISTORY. 97 

imprisoned. After his release, he established the ^^ Liberator" 
at Boston. Other papers soon followed in advocating the im- 
mediate abolition of slavery; and antislavery societies began to 
be formed. The .American Antislavery Society was formed in 
1833. 

The Abolitionists believed with their opponents, that slavery 
in the states could only be abolished by their respective gov- 
ernments. Their chief object was, by the discussion of the 
subject, in all its bearings, social, moral, and political, to con- 
vince slaveholders that it was their duty, and that it would be 
for their interest, to abolish slavery. They hoped also, that a 
general expression of northern sentiment against the institu- 
tion as morally wrong, might serve to hasten action on the part 
of the slave states.. And as the power of Congress to abolish 
slavery in the District of Columbia and the territories of the 
United States, was generally admitted in the North, petitions 
in vast numbers, praying for the exercise of this power, were 
sent to Congress from all the free states. Town and county 
societies were formed- throughout the North. This movement 
alarmed as well as exasperated the southern people ; and the 
excitement soon became general. Ln the North as well as in 
the South, meetings were held, and resolutions passed, bit- 
terly denouncing the abolitionists. Antislavery meetings in 
many places w^ere broken up by violence, and several auti- 
slaver}'^ presses were demolished. 

A majority of Congress being opposed to the objects of the 
Abolitionists, who continued to send in their petitions for the 
abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and for pro- 
hibiting the slave trade between the states, the house resolved 
that such petitions should, on presentation, be laid on the table 
without being debated, printed, or referred. This action of the 
house rather increased than allayed agitation ; and petitions 
were daily oft'ered as usual — some for the repeal of the "gag 
resolutions," as they were called. 

But as yet there was no political antislavery party. The 
Abolitionists, however, began to vote for candidates in fjivor 
of their views without respect to party. The subject of a 
political organization was soon after agitated ; and in Novem- 
ber, 1839, at a small meeting of Abolitionists in Western 



98 HISTORY OP WAYNE COUNTY. 

New York, James G. Birney, formerly a slaveholder in 
Alabama, who had emancipated his slaves and removed to the 
North, was nominated for President. This party never be- 
came numerous. A large majority of the Abolitionists refused 
to join it, believing their object was more likely to be efi'ected 
by adhering to the original plan of the societies. 

In 1848, this party .was merged in the Free Soil party, whose 
object was, in great part, to prevent the formation of slave 
states from the territory then just acquired from Texas. A 
national mass convention of the friends of free territory met' 
at Buffalo, in August, 1848, and nominated Martin Yan Buren 
for President, and Charles Francis Adams for Vice-President. 
The Abolitionists, who had already nominated John P. Hale, 
of New Hampshire, for President, withdrew their candidate, 
and supported the new party. But before the next presidential 
election, nearly all the Whigs and Democrats who had joined 
this party returned to their respective parties; and thereafter 
onlv a few thousand votes were cast for candidates of an anti- 
slavery party, until after the organization of the Republican 
party in 1855. 

Richmond Antislavery Society. 

When and where the first abolition society in this county 
was formed, the writer is not informed. At the celebration, in 
Richmond, of the adoption of the 15th Amendment of the 
Constitution of the United States, in the spring of 1870, Her- 
mon B. Payne, Esq., presented a copy of the " Constitution 
and Resolutions of the Richmond Antislavery Society, auxiliary 
to th*e American Antislavery Society." The paper bears no 
date; but Mr. Payne believed the society was formed in or 
about the year 1837. 

The constitution asserts the leading principle of the Declara- 
tion of Independence — that "all men are created equal;" 
pledges the ettbrts of the society to " encourage moral, intel- 
lectual, and religious improvement among the colored people," 
but will not countenance attempts to obtain their rights by 
force of arms. The resolutions assert the right of Congress to 
abolish slavery in the District of Columbia and in the terri- 
tories ; disclaim the intention to use any other means than moral 
influence ; appeal " to the hearts and consciences of slavehold- 



ANTISLAVERY HISTORY. 99 

era." Then followed an " Exposition of the American Anti- 
slavery Society," stating its principles and aims. These prin- 
ciples were adopted, and nearly fifty names to the paper were 
obtained. That these societies were instrumental in hastening 
the abolition of slavery, is now admitted by many who op- 
posed them, or questioned their expediency. As many of the 
next generation may be gratified to see the names of their an- 
cestors who took an active part in the early efibrts to promote 
the cause of emancipation, the names of these signers are sub- 
joined : 

John Sailor, Edward B. Quiner, Henry W. Quiner, Wm. 
H. Brown, Sidney Smith, Frank B. Lovejoy, Ebenezer P. 
Lovejoy, Daniel S. Campbell, John Phelps, Emeline Phelps, 
Elizabeth Phelps, Margaret Phelps, David P. Grave, Phiueas 
Grave, [probably meant Pusey Grave,] Gideon Teas, Edwin 
Smith, Edwin Vickers, Wm. Yickers, Philander Crocker, 
Frances S. Crocker, Peter Crocker, Alice and Jane Crocker, 
Wm. Lindsey and Rhoda Ann, his wife, and their daughters 
Catharine, Eliza Ann, and Mary Ann, Amy H. and Rebecca 
Cox, daughters of Wm. Cox, Deborah R. and Elizabeth J. 
Derickson, Catharine Horney, Amy Pryor, now wife of Her- 
mon B. Payne, and Emeline Pryor, daughters of Mrs. Horney, 
Joseph Ogborn, S. Sufirins, Shipley Lester. Societies were 
formed in several townships, but the difiiculty in getting in- 
formation concerning them, and the want of space, forbid a 
notice of them. 

It may excite the wonder of many of the next generation 
that these efibrts were discountenanced, if not actually opposed, 
by a majority of the people of the non-slaveholding states. It 
is but just, however, to state that much of this opposition arose, 
not from a regard for slavery, but from a misapprehension of 
the aims of the Abolitionists, and from the supposed tendency 
of the agitation to excite servile insurrections in the South. 

The first separate nomination of antislavery men as candi- 
dates for members of the legislature from this county, was 
made in 1841. Pusey Grave was nominated for senator; 
Samuel Johnson, Daniel Winder, and Josiah Bell for represent- 
atives. The number of votes cast in the county for Grave 
was 442. In 1842, Isaiah Osborn, Hermon B. Payne, and 



100 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Elihu Cox, were candidates, and received between 200 and 300 
votes. In 1844, Charles Burroughs and H. P. Bennett, candi- 
dates for the senate, received, respectively, 1,384 and 1,255 
votes, being supported also by Democrats. J. Unthank, Isaiah 
Osborn, and Philander Crocker, for representatives, received a 
little upward of 300. After this year no antislavery nomina- 
tions were made until 1848. 

Rescue of Fugitive Slaves. 

There were in this county many who disregarded both the 
letter and the intent of the law for the reclamation of slaves. 
Long before any of the present railroads were projected, 
" underground railroads," as they came to be called, were in 
operation. And there were_ a number of "stations" in this 
county, where southern property was deposited for a short 
time, and forwarded "with care" to its destination beyond 
our northern frontier. 

Arrests of fugitive slaves in this county were not unfrequent. 
"What proportion of these arrested fugitives were reclaimed, it 
is perhaps impossible to ascertain. Among the cases of rescue 
are the following : 

A slave was apprehended by a claimant under oath, and 
brought before Justice John C. Kibbey ; but the corroborative 
evidence of ownership was insufficient to justify the rendition 
of the fugitive. The claimant subsequently managed to get a 
grasp on the negro in the street, who, in attempting to extri- 
cate himself from the grip of his pursuer, was struck a severe 
blow by the latter. The offender was arrested for assault and 
battery, tried, and, it is believed, fined. The negro was con- 
ducted by some colored friends to the woods, where he was for 
a few days supplied with food by Peter Johnson and others, 
who helped him on his way to Canada. 

Another fugitive was brought before a justice in Richmond. 
During the trial, the negro, sitting in a raised window, thought 
proper to let himself fall out backward, into the hands of 
friends outside. These were trying to draw him out, while 
the friends of the claimant inside, having hold of his legs, en- 
deavored to pull him in. The friends of the negro succeeded 
in effecting his rescue. Against one of them, Wm. Bulla, a 



ANTISLAVERY HISTORY. 101 

suit was brought to recover the value of the slave, and a judg- 
ment was obtained in favor of the prosecutor for some five 
hundred dollars. Several of the others who participated in the 
rescue, it is said, shared in the payment of the money. 

A citizen of Newport wrote two years ago an account of the 
escape of a slave, a part of which was published in the Radical 
of Richmond. From this, and the unpublished manuscript 
which was never quite completed, the following abstract has 
been prepared : 

In the summer of 1844, a Mississippi slave who had hired 
his time, for which he was to pay a stipulated sum per month, 
was working in Memphis, Tenn. By industry and economy 
he had saved from his earnings a considerable sum to himself, 
besides making his regular payments to his master in Missis- 
sippi. A free colored man, John Bennett, steward on a steam- 
boat, then on a down trip to Kew Orleans, left the boat at 
Memphis to stay with his family until the return of the boat, 
having hired a man to take his place. He here became ac- 
quainted with the slave, who offered him $75 if he would assist 
him in escaping to a free state. Bennett procured a strong 
box large enough to hold the human chattel; and, on the 
morning the boat was expected, breathing holes having been 
made in the box, the slave laid down in it on his back. The 
lid was securely nailed, and labeled, "-John Bennett; this side 
up, loith carer Bennett had the box hauled down to the wharf 
and placed on the wharf-boat of Capt. Shaw, to await the ar- 
rival of the steamboat. Here the box was left exposed to the 
rays of an almost tropical sun, until human existence could 
continue in it no longer; and while Capt, Shaw was quietly 
seated upon it, a sepulchral voice within it called out, " Open 
this box!" With one bound the captain almost cleared the 
wharf-boat, and barely escaped a watery grave. Having pro- 
cured assistance and opened the box, instead of crockery ware, 
there was a real live " nigger," the chattel of a southern gen- 
tleman. 

The whole city was excited by the news of this discovery. 
It being Sunday, congregations in some of the churches were 
either greatly thinned, or their meeting prevented. It was pro- 
posed to put the negro back into the box and throw him into 



102 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

the river. Others said, " Nail him in the box, and bury him 
alive." He was at length handcuffed and placed in the cala- 
boose, and his master notified of his attempted escape. 

Bennett escaped to the woods, where he skulked about until 
"Wednesday, when he was discovered, taken back to the city, 
and placed in irons to await his trial. He was convicted and 
sentenced to five years' hard labor in the penitentiary. 

The slave was taken back to his master in Mississippi, and 
put to work again in the cotton fields. And although he af- 
fected an air of contentment, he was constantly on the look- 
out for a way of escape. When nailed in the box, he had on 
his person a considerable amount of money he had saved, and 
a lot of tools for working his way out of prison, should he be 
placed in one; and, strange to say, the mob that surrounded 
him when he was released from the box, failed to discover 
these ; nor were they discovered by his master after his return 
home. 

Having worked a year for his old master without creating 
suspicion, and having matured a plan of escape, he resolved to 
make another venture for freedom. Starting in the night, he 
again reached Memphis, where, after a concealment from pub- 
lic view for some days, he came across two conductors on the 
"underground railroad," w^ho agreed to laud him in Cincin- 
nati for $175. They took him on board the boat as their 
body-servant, and landed him safely in that city. Here he 
kept secreted until an opportunity offered to send him to the 
interior of Ohio, where he remained for nearly a year, when he 
came to Richmond, where he soon became an efficient agent in 
the work of aiding- others to secure the boon that had been 
vouchsafed to him. William Bush, the fugitive slave from 
Mississippi, is now, and has been for many j^ears, an indus- 
trious blacksmith and a respectable citizen of ^Newport. 



TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES. 103 



TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES. 

Drinking Customs. 

The general use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage by all 
classes of the community, and the direful consequences of its 
use, prevailed throughout our country. Hence the subject is 
not introduced here because there was anything in the custom 
of drinking peculiar to this county. In the absence of positive 
knowledge, we rather incline to the belief that it was for a 
long time less prevalent here than in most other places. A 
majority of the early settlers were Friends, by whose rules and 
discipline the common drinking of, and traffic in ardent spirits 
were inhibited, if not entirely prevented. 

Although the evils of intemperance are still deplorable, a 
material change in the custom of drinking has been effected. 
Good men and bad indulged in it. The whisky jug was 
thought an indispensable help in the harvest field, at house- 
raisings, log-rollings, and corn-huskings ; nor was the decanter 
with its exhilarating contents generally wanting at social 
gatherings. A man meeting a friend near a tavern, invited him 
to the bar to "take a drink." A man was deemed wanting in 
hospitality if he did not " treat" his visitors. The traveler who 
stopped at a tavern to warm, thought it " mean" to leave with- 
out patronizing the bar to the amount of a York sixpence or a 
shilling. The idea had not been conceived that both parties 
would have been gainers if the money had been paid for the 
fire, and the liquor left in the decanter. Liquor bought by the 
gallon — by a few even by the barrel — was kept in families; for 
daily use. Seated at the breakfa&t-table, or just before sitting, 
the glass was passed round to "give an appetite." Bittered 
with some herb or drug, it was used as a " sovereign remedy " 
for most of the ailments "flesh is heir to," and often as a 
preventive. It was taken because the weather was hot, and 
because it was cold. Liquors being kept in the early country 
stores, some merchants were wont to " treat " their customers, 



104 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

especially when they made large bills, and sometimes before- 
hand, to sharpen their appetite for trading. Happily most of 
these customs have become obsolete among the better classes 
of society, and, it is hoped, will never be revived. 

That drunkenness and its natural concomitants, poverty, 
crime, and premature death, were the results of these practices, 
is not surprising. The marvel is, that the opinions and habits 
so long prevalent should have had the sanction of wise and 
good men. The evils of intemperance became at length 
alarmingly dreadful, and remedial measures began to be sug- 
gested and discussed. 

Temperance Associations. 

"Where, how, or when the temperance reform originated, is, 
perhaps, not now known. The first temperance document the 
writer recollects, was an address by a Mr. Kittridge, of Kew 
Hampshire, which, if it did not start the reform, gave it a 
powerful impetus ; and the name of the pamphlet, "Kittridge's 
Address," became, in some parts of the country, as familiar as 
a household word. This was soon followed [in 1826] by "Six 
Sermons on Intemperance," by Rev. Lyman Beecher, of Bos- 
ton, father of Henry Ward Beecher, which also rendered the 
cause essential service. A portion of the newspaper press 
soon came to its support. Meetings were held in all parts of 
the country, and thousands of temperance societies were 
formed. The pledge of abstinence was circulated, and was 
signed by large numbers of both sexes, among whom were 
many intemperate persons. And, although many of these re- 
lapsed, some were effectually reclaimed. 

For a number of years only spirituous liquors were inter- 
dicted by the pledge. Complete success, it was believed, re- 
quired abstinence from intoxicating drinks of all kinds ; and 
the societies generally soon adopted the total abstinence prin- 
ciple. 

When and where the first temperance society in this county 
was formed, or whether a county society was ever organized 
in this county, the writer has not learned. Societies were 
formed in several of the townships at an early day, some of 
which are noticed in the historical sketches of these townships. 



WASHINGTONIAN MOVEMENT. 105 

One was also organized in Richmond, but the date of its or- 
ganization has not been ascertained. The temperance cause, 
however, has always had in Richmond, as in all other places 
in the county, many zealous and active friends. John Sailor, 
Rev. Peter Crocker, Hermon B. Payne, E. B. Quiner, are 
recollected as a few of those who were early identified with 

the cause. 

Washingtonian Movement. 

About the year 1840, a fresh impulse was given to the tem- 
perance cause by the ettbrts of men called " Washingtonians." 
A number of abandoned men in the city of Baltimore, who were 
wont to spend their evenings at the taverns and other haunts 
of the vicious and the dissipated, resolved to reform, and at 
once became " teetotalers." They traversed a large portion of 
the country, lecturing generally to large gatherings. Drunk-' 
ards in lar^e numbers and from 2;reat distances attended, and 
many of them signed the pledge. The most noted of this 
band of reformers was John Hawkins, who, though unlettered, 
was one of the most effective lecturers in the country. Al- 
though there was nothing in their plans and mode of operation 
to distinguish them from other temperance men, they were 
generally called " Washingtonians." 

As a result of their efforts, reformed drunkards became mis- 
sionaries, and constituted, for a time, the principal lecturing 
force X)f the country. Many drunkards were reformed, and 
many moderate drinkers became thorough temperance men. 

It must be confessed, however, that the permanent benefits 
of this "temperance revival" which many anticipated were not 
fully realized. These reformers came to be regarded by very 
many as almost the only eti'ective champions of the cause, wliile 
its ablest and earliest advocates were lightly esteemed. Hence 
these were, to a great extent, superseded, as lecturers, by re- 
formed inebriates, many of whom, though 'for the time ab- 
staining from the use of intoxicating drinks, were very far 
from having attained to the character of the true reformer. 
Often was the pulpit surrendered on the Sabbath to men whose 
vulgar, laughter-provoking stories were wholly unbecoming the 
place and the occasion. It was not strange that many who, 
under such influences, signed the pledge, soon relapsed into 



106 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

their former habits. Still, much good was accomplished. 
Probably at about this time, and for several years thereafter, 
less ardeut spirits were drank in proportion to our population, 
than at any other time since distilleries were first generally 
established. 

Secret Organizations. 

The Washingtonian movement was succeeded by organiza- 
tions of several kinds. Among the earliest of them was that 
of the " Sons of Temperance," which was for several years a 
popular order of temperance men. But it seems to have been, 
to a great extent, superseded by the " Good Templars," who 
maintain organizations, probably, in every town. These two 
orders are both secret. Whether their efficiency is increased 
by this feature in their organization, or not, it is not easy to 
determine. 

Attempts at Prohibition. 

As incidental to the efforts for the promotion of the tem- 
perance reformation, came the license question. ]S"otwithstand- 
ing the progress of the cause by the simple instrumentality of 
the pledge, many, with a view to its more rapid advancement, 
began to invoke the aid of legislation by the enactment of ^^ro- 
hihitory laws. Without raising the question as to the propriety 
of laws inhibiting the sale of liquors to be used as a beverage, 
it can be said with truth, that in proportion as the friends of 
the cause relied on legislation to accomplish the desired reform, 
their labors in the use of the pledge were relaxed. The effect 
of this relaxation of effort was, at least in many places, a 
retrogression of the cause. 

A stringent prohibitory law was passed in Maine. Well 
authenticated official statements soon showed a reduction, in 
some districts, of more than three-fourths of the expeiRses of pau- 
perism and crime. A similar law was tried in one or more other 
states, and with similar results, for short periods of time. But 
the strong opposition which these laws have encountered, has 
greatly impaired their efficiency. And many of the warmest 
friends of temperance advise a return to the old tried and 
effective method of promoting the cause, both as a means of 
reforming inebriates and of preparing public sentiment to sus- 
tain prohibitory laws. 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 107 



INTEENAL IMPEOYEMENTS. 

Roads. 

The Cumberland, or National Eoacl, had been gradually ex- 
tended to the eastern line of this state before the era of inter- 
nal improvements in this state commenced. In 1806, Congress 
authorized the construction of a tumirike road, at the expense 
of the General Government, from Cumberland, in the state of 
Maryland, to Ohio; hence its original name, "Cumberland 
Road." As the settlement of the country extended westward, 
Congress was solicited, from time to time, to extend the road 
for the benefit of the western people. The extension, however, 
proceeded very slowly. Bills proposing appropriations of 
money for this purpose, were opposed in Congress on the 
ground of inexpediency or unconstitutionality ; and one or 
more were arrested by the executive veto. 

After the road had been laid out as far west as Yandalia, 111., 
and graded and bridged the greater part of the way, the General 
Government relinquished it to the states through which it 
passed. Application was thereatter made to the legislature of 
this state for the incorporation of the Wayne County Turnpike 
Company; and a charter was granted for that purpose in the 
winter of 1849-50, and the road was completed in 1850. The 
company has kept the road in repair till the present time. Its 
annual dividends are satisfactory to the stockholders. The 
length of the road owned by this company is 22 miles, extend- 
ing from the east to the west line of the county. 

By the construction of this road, travel and commercial in- 
tercourse were greatl}' facilitated, and settlements were made 
rapidly along the line of the road. Roads from other town- 
ships to this central road were soon constructed, afibrding 
ready communication between the different sections of the 
county. 

The turnpikes in this county in 1865 were the following : 



108 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Cambridge City — runoiug north-west from Cambridge, 4 
miles. 

Centerville and Abington — distance 7 miles. 

Centerville and Jacksonburg — 2 miles finished in 1865. 

Chester and Arba — finished to the county line, 8 miles. 

Hagerstown and Dalton — distance 6 miles. 

Hagerstown and i^ra??/iiin-7-distance 6 miles. 

Hagerstown and Washington — distance 7 miles. 

Milton and Bentonsville — 4 miles finished. 

Milton and Brownsville — 5 miles finished. 

Milton and Connersville — 4 miles finished. 

Pleasant Valley — from Centerville to Robinson's Cross Roads, 
Fayette Co. ; finished 3 miles from Centerville. 

Richmond and Boston — from Richmond through Boston to 
the county line, 7 miles. 

Richmond and Newport — 8 miles, all finished. 

Richmond and New Paris — from Richmond to I^ew Paris, O. 

Richmond and Hillsboro — 9 miles, all finished. 

Richmond, and Lick Creek — running south from Richmond 
on the west side of the river. 

Richmond and Liberty — finished from Richmond, 7 miles. 

Richmond and Williamsburg — 10 miles, all finished. 

Short Creek, or Green 31ount — from Richmond and Boston 
pike, IJ m. south of Richmond, 4 miles to Ohio line. 

Smyrna — from Richmond and Hillsboro pike east to New 
Paris, Ohio. 

Union County Straight Line — from a point on the Richmond 
and Boston pike, 2 m. south of Richmond ; but a small portion 
finished. 

How many miles have been added to the finished turnpike 
roads in the count}' since 18G5, has not been ascertained. 

Canals. 

At its session of 1835-6, the Indiana legislature passed a 
general Internal Improvement bill, under which were com- 
menced the Wabash and Erie canal, the Madison and In- 
dianapolis railroad, Indiana Central canal, and the Whitewater 
Valley canal. The last-named work was to extend from Ha- 
gerstown to Lawrenceburg. [The state of Ohio, or a company 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 109 

chartered by the state, afterward constructed a branch from 
Harrison, Ohio, to Cincinnati.] Under the auspices of the 
state, the Whitewater Valley canal was completed from the 
Ohio river to Brookville, as well as about half the work from 
Brookville to Cambridge City. At this time, [1839,] the state 
found itself in debt some fourteen million dollars, and was com- 
pelled to abandon all the pubhc works. 

At the session of 1841-42, the legislature chartered the 
Whitewater Valley Canal Company, with a capital stock of 
$400,000. Samuel W. Parker, of Connersville, afterward mem- 
ber of Congress from this district, took an active part in get- 
ting up the company, and, in connection with J. G. Marshall 
and others, secured the granting of the charter by the legisla- 
ture of which they both were active members. One of the 
principal contractors under the state and company, was Thomas 
Tyner. 

Tlie citizens of Cambridge City celebrated the commence- 
ment of operations by the company on the 28th day of July, 
1842, by a barbecue, which was attended by about 10,000 per- 
sons. The first wheelbarrow load of earth was dug and 
wheeled out by Hon. Samuel W. Parker; the second, by Hon. 
Jehu T. Elliott, of Newcastle, since a judge of the supreme 
court. Every one present will remember the witty little 
speech of Parker on first "breaking ground" in the name of 
the company, and the able and more formal address which he 
afterward commenced, but which a terrible thunderstorm pre- 
vented him from completing. Letters from Henry Clay and 
other distinguished persons, who had been invited but failed to 
attend, were read on the occasion. 

The canal was finished, and boats commenced running in 
1846. For a year or tw^o an immense quantity of grain and 
other produce was purchased and shipped at Cambridge City, 
which was a principal shipping port for Rush, Henry, Ran- 
dolph, and Delaware counties. A daily line of passenger boats 
was also run to Cincinnati. 

On the first day of January, 1847, a tremendous freshet 
damaged the canal so badly that it cost upward of $100,000 to 
repair it. A second flood in November, 1848, only a few 
weeks after the repairs had been completed, damaged it to the 



110 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

amount of $80,000. It was, however, again repaired, and 
operated, to some extent, for several years, until superseded by 
railroads — one, the Whitewater Valley railroad, constructed 
along the tow-path, and part of the way, in the bed of the 
canal, which had been previously placed in the hands of a re- 
ceiver, and was subsequently sold for that purpose. 

The canal constructed by the company extended north only 
to Cambridge City. Subsequently, in or about the year 1846, 
the Hagerstown Canal Company was organized, and the canal 
completed to that place in 1847. But a small number of boats, 
however, ever reached that place ; and the canal soon fell into 
disuse, except as a source of water-power for Couklin's and 
other mills. 

In 1838, authority was granted to the Richmond and Brook- 
ville Canal Company to construct a canal from Richmond to 
Brookville, but without the aid of the state. The length of 
the Richmond and Brookville canal was nearly 34 miles ; the 
estimated cost $508,000 ; whole lockage, 273 feet; Richmond 
taking stock to the amount of $50,000. Work was let to the 
amount of $80,000, and about $45,000 expended. The enter- 
prise was then abandoned. By the great flood on the first day 
of January, 1847, the value of nearly all the work that had 
been done, was suddenly destroyed. This is now regarded as 
a fortunate occurrence. Had the canal been finished — the fall 
being 273 feet in 34 miles — it would probably have been 
utterly destroyed. 

Railroads. 

. In the year 1853, a railroad was completed from Cincin- 
nati to Richmond, by way of Dayton, and another by way of 
Eaton ; and in the same year the Indiana Central, from Rich- 
mond to Indianapolis, which is now a part of the Pittsburg, 
Cincinnati and St. Louis Railway. A railroad is completed 
from Richmond to Winchester, and is a part of the Cincin- 
nati, Richmond and Fort Wayne Railway. The Columbus, 
Chicago and Indiana Central passes through Richmond. 

The Whitewater Valley road from Cincinnati passes through 
Cambridge City to Hagerstown on the Columbus, Chicago and 
Indiana Central. The Fort Wayne, Muncie and Cincinnati 
also passes through Cambridge City. This was formerly the 



AQRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. Ill 

Cambridge City Branch of the Cincinnati and Indianapolis 
Junction road, from Connersville, on the Junction road, to 
JS'ewcastle, on the Columbus, Chicago and Indiana Central 
road. The railroad from Cambridge City to Rushville, on the 
Cincinnati and Indianapolis Junction road, was completed July 
4, 1867. It is now a branch of the Jeffersonville, Madison and 
Indianapolis road, and was originally a part of the Lake Erie 
and Louisville Railroad, extending from Fremont, 0., to Rush- 
ville, Ind., and by connections, to Louisville, Ky. 



AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 

The first Agricultural Fair held in Wayne county is said 
to have been held in Centerville, about the year 1828 ; but 
no definite or reliable information in respect to its origin or 
appointment has been furnished. The writer has made some 
inquiry, but has found no person able to give any history of 
a regularly organized society at so early a date. 

First Society. 

The late Agricultural Society of Wayne county, and prob- 
ably the first, was organized in the year 1850, Its first Fair 
was held in Richmond, on lands owned by Jonathan Roberts, 
now a part of the city. Probably few, even of the older cit- 
izens, have ever known how it was brought into existence. 
An old citizen, who assisted in its organization, gives an ac- 
count of it as follows : 

" It was organized in 1850. I called a meeting at Center- 
ville for the purpose of securing an organization. Wm. T. 
Dennis and myself went over to the "hub" of the county; 
but few attended — at most not exceeding half a dozen. We 
adjourned to meet at Richmond on the following Saturday. 
But two practical farmers were present. The mechanics took 
no interest in it. We adjourned to next morning, Sunday 
as it was. I sent for Dennis to come to my oflice. I 
proposed that he and I organize the society to give character 
to it. We elected Daniel Clark, an enterprising farmer, 
president of the board, and myself vice-president, and Den- 



112 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

nis secretary. "We then appointed one citizen from each 
township on the board of directors. We got up a premium 
list, and published it, appearing as the work of the directors. 
We subsequently rented about two acres of ground of Jona- 
than Roberts, and had it inclosed with a tight board fence, 
and held the Fair that year all on our own personal responsi- 
bility. From the receipts we paid all expenses, except for 
our services and individual expenditures, and had a surplus 
of several hundred dollars. In the following winter or 
spring, we called a county meeting at Centerville, which was 
largely attended, and handed over to the treasurer the profits 
of the first Fair. This was the beginning of our institution 
which subsequently reflected great honor on Wayne county. 
"At the next session of the legislature, David P. HoUoway 
prepared and introduced a bill organizing a 

State Board of Agriculture. 

After a warm contest, the law was passed ; and we all know 
the result. At the first State Fair, citizens of Wayne county 
took as many of the silverware, or high class premiums, as 
all the rest of the state combined." 

David P. Holloway was the first president of the county 
society, and held the ofiice for several years. Gov. A\'^right, 
a friend of agriculture, attended the first fair, and ad- 
dressed the people on the subject. A lease of ten acres of 
land for ten years was obtained from a widowed German 
lady, just south of the city, where fences and permanent 
buildings were put up, and the annual fairs held. The last 
was held in 1866. 

Cambridge City District Agricultural Society. 

This Society embraces the counties of Wayne, Fayette, 
Union, Franklin, Rush, Shelby, Hancock, Henry, Delaware 
and Randolph. It was organized June 18, 1870, at Cam- 
bridge City. Its object is the promotion of the agricultural, 
mechanical and horticultural interests. It purchased of Gen. 
Solomon Meredith a beautiful, level tract of land of 60 acres, 
for the sum $12,000, or $200 per acre. The land adjoins the 
corporate limits of Cambridge City on the south, and was 
purchased on a credit of twelve years. 



AGRICULTUKAL SOCIETIES. 113 

The capital stock of the association is $10,000, about $8,000 
of which has been taken and paid for. The land has been 
inclosed by a substantial fence, and the necessary buildings 
and stalls have been erected, at a cost of about $10,000, and a 
magnificent mile track has been constructed at a cost of not 
less than $2,000. The shape of the track is an oval, being 
some narrower at one end. The shape and extent of the 
track, and the excellent character of the soil for the purpose 
intended, make it superior to any other track in the West, 
and probably equal to any in the United States. 

The ofiicers chosen at the organization were the following : 

President — Gen. Solomon Meredith. 
Vice-President — Capt. John Colter. 

Secretary — John I. Underwood. 

Treasurer — Thomas Newby. 

Superintendent — Sanford Lackey. 

Assistant Superintendent — Robert A. Patterson. 

Bo.\RD OF Directors. — Wayne County — Gen. S. Meredith, John Callo- 
way, Charles Boughner, Henry Shinier, Wilson Jones, John I. Under- 
wood, John W. Jackson, Jonah Riosor, James W. Carpenter, Sanford 
Lackey, John Colter, Nathan S. Hawkins, Charles W. Routh, Robert A. 
Patterson, Nathan Raymond, Cleophas Straub, Joseph Morrey. 

Fayette County — A. B. ClaypooL 

Union County — R. M. Haworth. 

Franklin County — Hon. John Beggs. * 

Push County — Isaac B. Loder. 

Shelly County— W. S. Wilson. 

Hancock County — Dr. N. P. Howard. 

Henry County — Simon T. Powell. 

Delaware County — Volney Wilson. 

Randolph County — CoL H, H. NeflF. 

Two annual fairs have already been held by the Society 
with great success. To Gen. Meredith, perhaps, more than 
to any other one man, is the Association indebted for the 
successful inauguration and completion of this enterprise. 

The present ofiicers are : 

President — A. B. Claypool, Fayette county. 
Vice-President — Isaac Kinsey, Wayne county. 
Secretary — John I. Underwood, Wayne county. 
Treasurer — John W. Jackson, Wayne county. 
Superintendent — Charles Boughner, Wayne county. 
Assistant Superintendent— J . Young, Wayne county. 
Marshal — H Shissler, Wayne county. 



114 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Wayne County Joint Stock Agricultural Association. 

This association was organized in August, 18G7, for the 
purpose of holding fairs in Centcrville. The first exliibition 
of the society was held in October following on their beauti- 
ful grounds adjoining the town; and successful fairs have 
been held annually since. The first ofiicers of the associa- 
tion were: Rankin Baldridge, President; Henry B. Rupe, 
Treasurer ; Sylvester Johnson, Secretary ; Daniel S. Brown, 
Superintendent. Present ofiicers : Rankin Baldridge, Presi- 
dent ; John P. Smith, Vice-President ; AY. Gr. Stevens, Treas- 
urer ; W. Q. Elliott, Secretary ; Alfred J. Lashley, Superin- 
tendent. 

Richmond Industrial Association. [See History of Richmond.] 

Richmond Horticultural Society. 

This Society was organized December, 1855, by some half- 
dozen persons, most of them amateurs. For the first two 
years, the progress of the society was slow. It was not till 
after the first exhibition that any great interest in horticul- 
ture was manifested ; since which time it has been constantly 
on the increase. Bv the energy and perseverance of mem- 
bers, the leading new varieties of fruits, flowers, and vegeta- 
bles have been obtained and brought to public notice and 
general cultivation in this locality. The skill and judgment 
of the members have been the subject of encomium by the 
press, and high praise has been given to the society by the 
large numbers of citizens attending its meetings. The exhi- 
bitions have also been almost invariably financially successful. 
It is said to be now the oldest existing horticultural society 
in the state. 



OLD settlers' meetings. 115 



OLD SETTLEES' MEETINGS. 

Several years before the breaking out of the late war, the 
citizens of this county instituted the custom of holding 
annual picnics. The excitement during the progress of the 
war took away the interest in those meetings ; but after the 
return of peace they were resumed. The meeting of 1869 
was held on the fair ground at Centerville, on the 18th of 
June. It was represented in the newspapers as a successful 
one. Since the first meeting, held ten years previously, there 
had not been so large an attendance as there was at this meet- 
ing. The following report of its proceedings and of the re- 
marks of the speakers, is taken from the newspapers : 

Hon. James Perry, of Richmond, was chosen president of 
the meeting. 

The President, on taking the chair, made an appropriate 
address, in which he briefly compared the state of the coun- 
try and the county fifty years ago with their present condi- 
tion. There can not be a more beautiful contrast than that 
between the county as it was in the days of the red man, and 
the county as it is now. Then all was wilderness ; now we 
have turnpikes and railroads, cultivated farms and splendid 
mansions, and the fields are decked with grain and flowers. 
After a few remarks on the propriety and good results of this 
association, he concluded. The organization was then com- 
pleted by the election of Oliver T. Jones and Isaac N. Beard, 
as Vice-Presidents, and Dr. Samuel S. Boyd, Secretary. 

On the stand were Colonel James Blake, Hon. J. S. New- 
man, and Hon. Oliver P. Morton, former re'sidents of "Wa^'ne 
county, now of Indianapolis ; Joseph Holman, John Peelle, 
Barnabas C. Hobbs, Colonel Enoch Hailsback, Jacob B. Ju- 
lian, Noah W. Miner, John Green, Dr. Mendenhall, and 
others. 

Hon. Oliver P. Morton was introduced by the President as 



116 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

the first speaker. He said lie was a native of Salisbury, the 
old county town which has passed out of existence, the house 
of Colonel Railsback being the last and only one. A half 
century ago, Indiana was called the extreme West ; and a 
trip from the Eastern states took as much time as it did now 
to go to the Sandwich Islands, or to Japan. Indiana is not 
now in the West at all. An Omaha paper claimed that that 
city was in the East ! He spoke of the progress of the coun- 
try iu wealth and population, and its moral and intellectual 
improvement. He did not believe there would be another 
rebellion; the country, a hundred years hence, would be 
bound together by stronger ties than ever of affection, of 
honor, and glory. 

Joseph Holmaii was then introduced. He said he was the 
sole survivor of two events ; of the first emigration party of 
eight, who came to Wayne county in 1805, and also of the 
body of men who framed the first constitution of the state in 
1816. When he came, Knox, Clark, and Dearborn were the 
only counties in the territory. Mr. Holman read a sketch of 
his early reminiscences which he had prepared. [As a large 
portion of the facts alluded to in the sketch are mentioned 
elsewhere in this work, they are here omitted.] While he 
was reading, the emigration train passed by, with their 
pack horses, hominy kettle and bell, all in the order they 
started sixty-four years ago. This exhibition excited a good 
deal of interest. Mr. Holman was born near Versailles, 
Woodford county, Ky., and was married November 22, 1810, 
and went to housekeeping two days afterward in a log cabin 
built by himself. He served in the war of 1812, and built a 
block-house on his farm near Centerville. 

The meeting next adjourned for dinner. A reporter of the 
proceedings, alluding to the ample supply of provisions for 
the occasion, wrote : " We heard of one poor family who 
only made way with thirteen chickeris; and from the appear- 
ance of the ground, this may be taken as a fair average of the 
way the barn-yards suffered all over the county." The first 
thing done by the President was to ofl'er a set of knives and 
forks made by Henry Hunter, of Richmond, to the oldest 
person on the ground. The prize was carried off by William 
Bundy, aged eighty-two. 



OLD settlers' meetings. 117 

ColonelJames Blake, of Indianapolis. When he came to 
Marion county, Wayne was called " Old Wayne," being six- 
teen years ahead of Marion. Between Centerville and In- 
dianapolis there were not a half-dozen inhabitants. The peo- 
ple of Wayne and Marion were neighbors, and were familiar 
with each other. The citizens of Indianapolis got their mail 
from tlie Connersville post-office, talking two days to go and 
two days to get back. In early times there were two parties 
in the state, the Whitewater party and the Kentucky party, 
trained in all sorts of tricks by the controversy over the re- 
moval of the county seat from Salisbury to Centerville. 

The Whitewater party always beat the Kentucky party, 
and virtually controlled the state. He remembered the 
first United States mail that came to Indianapolis, in April, 
1822. The news came one day that the next the United 
States mail was to come; and at the appointed time all In- 
dianapolis gathered, to the number of thirty or forty families, 
to see the mail come in. Presently, through the woods was 
seen a young man riding his horse at a gallop, now and then 
blowing his horn ; and that was the United States mail. 
The saddle-bags were opened, and there were about a dozen 
letters. It was a great day for Indianapolis. The young 
mail carrier's name was Lewis Jones. [At this instant, Mr. 
Jones, still residing in Center township, arose.] That young 
man carried the mail for two years, swimming all the creeks. 
He was once so far frozen, that it required two men to take 
him off his horse into a store to thaw him out. In 1821, 
when the speaker came to Indianapolis, there was no prop- 
erty held except by the government. It was one great forest, 
through which they could not see the sun and sky. Once 
the people got so famished to see the firmament, that they 
made up a party, and rode eighteen miles to William Con- 
ner's prairie, and spent the day roaming round. When they 
first saw the sun, the whole party took off their hats and 
cheered for half an hour ! Colonel Blake also complimented 
the people of that day for being so honest, that notes for 
borrowed money were never thought of. People helped each 
other as a matter of course, and borrowed money without in- 



118 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

terest. jSTotliing was known of usury until 1834, when the 
banks started up, and a bank aristocracy was created. 

John S. Neiuman was introduced. He had been a long 
time a resident of Wayne county, and his mind was crowded 
with recollections. He remembered letters addressed to his 
grandfather, "Andrew Hoover, Dearborn County, Indiana 
Territory." In the audience before him he recognized many 
old friends, and not a few he might call "chums." He re- 
membered many of tlie incidents related by Joseph Holman; 
but one Mr. Holman had forgotten to tell. At the election 
held in 1814 to elect members of the legislature, James 
Brown received one vote more than Holman ; and as they 
voted viva voce, when one man came up and voted for Brown, 
some one said, " I thought you intended to vote for Hol- 
man ? " " So I did," was the reply, " but let it stand now." 
That vote elected Brown ; but Brown died when he was 
within a few miles of the capital at Corydon, and Holman 
was elected at a special election to fill the vacancy. [Mr. 
Newman here omits a fact. Brown had voted for himself; 
and had Holman voted for himself, he would have prevented 
the election of his rival, which he was unwilling to do.] 
There were then about six hundred votes cast in the county. 
In 1818, John Sutherland got 888 votes, and it was thought 
nobody would ever get so many votes again. Mr. New- 
man's folks landed in. Wayne county March 29, 1807. At 
that time the land belonged to the Indians. The line be- 
tween the red and the white men's grounds then ran about 
two and a half miles west of Richmond. In 1809, a strip of 
land twelve miles wide was purchased by Gen. Harrison, west 
of the Wayne purchase of 1785 ; and the west line of the 
purchase ran near Cambridge City. It was a great thing 
then to go to the new purchase. The price of land was $2 
per acre ; but for cash down the Government made a reduc- 
tion of 37J cents. 

He remembered the old path by Cox's mill, built in the 
year 1807, to Richmond, down the Whitewater. When he 
was old enough to sit on a horse, his uncle and himself used 
to go to mill ; and the pathway was so narrow that they had 
to push the bushes on either side to allow their animals to 



OLD settlers' meetings. 119 

pass. That is now the most thickly settled part of Wayne 
county. He concurred with Gov. Morton in the belief that 
the world was growing better intellectually and morally, but 
doubted it a little as to muscular strength. Handling the ax, 
splitting logs and rails, developed a strength of muscle supe- 
rior to that enjoyed by the men of to-day. 

John Peelle was the next speaker. He said : I have so 
often told you the same old story, that you know it by heart. 
You know I was born in the year 1791, near Beard's hatter 
shop in old North Carolina. You remember the plow made 
of a forked stick, the cotton rope traces, ray tanning leather, 
or pretending to, and making my wife's shoes out of it, which 
hurt her feet to this day. You know, for I have told you 
before, that after I came to this State, I often got up from 
the table hungry, and sighed, with tears in my e3'es, for my 
mother's milk-house in ISTorth Carolina. But we soon 
raised plenty of corn and squashes and pumpkins, on which 
we fared sumptuously. We used to hand round a basket of 
turnips to company in the place of apples. I remember once 
at a neighbor's house, I did not scrape the turnip as close as 
the good lady of the house thought I ought to ; so she scraped 
it over again and ate it herself. I believe I liiive seen as hard 
times as the next man. I made two farms from the green. 
One day, going to Moffitt's on a borrowed horse, he fell down 
fourteen times, but he got the bag off only once. Let me say 
a word about my nephew, Judge Peelle. I believe he is 
present. Well, whether he is or not, he was as bad a child 
as I ever knew. He cried nearly all the way from Korth 
Carolina, for which I often wanted to thrash him. Yet after 
all, the judge is quite a man now. Mr. Peelle exhibited a shill- 
ing once owned by John Wesley, and a mate to the one he 
paid to the 'squire who married him. Being about to leave 
the stand without alluding to his pantaloons, some one re- 
minded him of his forgetfuluess. Turning to the audience 
and laying his liand on his pantaloons, he said: These are 
the identical " overhauls " for which I swapped another pair 
at a log-rolling shortly after I came to this country. We 
went into a log meeting-house close by to make the ex- 
change. 



120 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Barnabas C. Hobbs, Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
was the next speaker. He was born in Washington county. 
When the emigrants started to l^orth Carolina, they parted 
company in Kentucky, a portion going to Wayne count3'-,the 
other to Washington county. lie remembered the laying off 
of the city of Indianapolis. When the people got home and 
were asked the name of the new town, they replied, " Indian 
no place." He remembered Judge Parke very well, who used 
to stay at his father's house when on his circuit, which ex- 
tended from Vincennes to Richmond, taking in all the in- 
termediate country, Lawrenceburg and all. Mr. Hobbs told 
a story of the courtship of Gabriel Newby, of Washington 
county, who was in love with the daughter of John Harvey, 
of Wayne county. It took the lover two days to go to and 
from Harvey's house, requiring him to spend one night in 
the woods on the journey. On one occasion, after I^ewby 
had encamped for the night, the wolves came around him ; 
and through the darkness until daylight he had to fight the 
beasts with fire-brands. Such was the trouble young men 
had then to get wives. Although Mr. H. omitted to tell it, 
Miss Harvey finally became Mrs. Newby. He closed with an 
interesting examination of the old constitution of 1816, and 
the school laws of that time, to show that the men of that 
day had the most expanded ideas of the advantages of a 
thorough education of the youth of the state. 

The exercises were now relieved by the band playing the 
air, " Auld lang syne," after which 

Col. Enoch JRailsback made a speech crowded Avith interest- 
ing facts. He came to Wayne county on the 17th of March, 
1807, when the land belonged to the Shawnee and Delaware 
Indians. Polly Whitehead, daughter of the Baptist iireacher, 
was the first white woman married in the county. [Mrs. 
Hunt, the lady named, was present, and came upon the plat- 
form.] She was then one of the finest women in the settle- 
ment; and although now eighty-one years of age, she steps off 
as lively to-day as almost any one can. The, first Methodist Epis- 
copal church was established by Hugh Cull and old Mr. Meek, 
in 1808. The preaching places were at John Cox's, Hugh 
Cull's, and at the speaker's father's. The first mill was built 





Cq^^z^:^ Vt^^^^^^-<^^c/^, 



OLD settlers' meetings. 121 

November 30, 1807, by old man Hunt, on the Elkhorn. Squire 
Rue and Squire Cox, the first justices of the peace, were as 
much revered as a judge is now-a-days. The first doctors 
were Dr. David F. Sackett and Dr. Davis; but the first of a 
higher order of physicians, as the people believed, were Drs. 
Pugh, Warner, Pritchett, and Mendenhall. He had worn as 
many, if not more leather breeches than any one else on the 
ground, and was just as happy then as he was now, worth a 
hundred times as much. He recollected John Green very 
well, a gentlemanly old Indian, who lived on Noland's Fork. 
He had often seen Indians pass his father's house, sometimes 
fifty or sixty, going to Hamilton, Ohio, to trade; and they 
were very friendl}^ The last crowd of Indians he saw was 
when Gen. Harrison reviewed the eiffht regiments of militia 
just south of Richmond, where he had come to warn the people 
of danger. There were about fifty sitting on the fence looking 
at the review. Mr. Railsback related several interesting inci- 
dents connected with the Indians, one of which was their stealing 
Lydia Thorp, a little daughter of Boaz Thorp, near Milton. 
The Indians were tracked by men and dogs, but they escaped, 
and nothing was seen of the girl until, about ten years after, 
they saw her at the forks of the Wabash, the happy wife of an 
Indian. The mother and father did not dare to speak to her, 
and she soon left, and was seen by them no more. Jeptha 
Turner is the oldest native born inhabitant of Wayne county 
living, and is about sixty-three years of age. Mrs. Railsback 
was the first white child born in the county. She came into 
the world October 5, 1806. 

Jacob B. Julian next addressed the meeting. He appeared 
for the reason that most of the other speakers had been born 
away from home; and he wanted the audience to see the ad- 
vantages of being born in Wayne county. He was " native 
and to the manor born " — about fifty-four years ago. A portion 
of the old house he carried in the shape of a walking-stick, 
as a sacred memento of his father and mother. AVhen he was 
born, the tax duplicate was onl}' about $950; now it amounted 
to between $350,000 and $360,000. The Twelve Mile Pur- 
chase was then in market. Between Cambridge and the Pa- 
cific ocean there was not a foot of land subject to entry. 



122 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

There were not, probably, one thousand white men in all that 
country, where there are at least ten millions to-clay. When 
he was born, not a turnpike was thought of. Railroads had 
not been dreamed of. There was but one church, and no 
school-house, that was not made of logs. To-day there are 
three hundred miles of turni>ike, and $300,000 invested in 
churches and school-houses. What a change in one short life ! 
Mr. Julian then passed into a eulogium of Wayne county, 
and alluded to the feeling of pride and love which animated 
the breast of every native of the county. 

Noah W. Miner, the last speaker, said he could n't attempt 
a speech in loss than three or four hours; but if the committee 
would give him that length of time on some occasion, he 
would show them what could be done in the way of a 
speech. He came from the Beard's hatter shop locality, being 
born in the year 1800. He had seen the century in, and he 
knew no good reason why he should n't see it out. He had 
lived sixty-nine years, and if something did n't happen to him 
that never had happened, he would see the century out, sure. 
Mr. Miner told sundry interesting things about his early life 
corroborative of the facts related by others, and gave way 
about four o'clock to the museum of curious things, which was 
conducted by Mr. Jones with all the empressmeiit of a regular 
exhibitor of striped reptiles or fat women. The following is a 
list: 

A pewter bowl, over one hundred years old, belonging to 
Leah Bartlett, of Maryland, now owned by her granddaughter. 

A pair of spoon molds, with spoon. 

A copy of the Ulster County Gazette, of the date of January 
4, 1800, with an account of the death and funeral of General 
Washington. Published at Kingston, Ulster county, i!^. Y. 

Old plow with wooden mold board. 

A pair of hames accompanying the plow. 

A powder horn made of gourd used by the grandfather of 
Levi Warren in the Revolutionary war, under Gen. Benedict 
Arnold. As the President said, "a better gourd now than 
Arnold was a man." 

A pocket-book one hundred and fifty years old, made in 



CKIMINAL TRIALS. 123 

Germany, and brought over with German guihlern of date 
1709. 

A lot of German almanacs, the oldest dated 1775. 

A foot stove used by old German ladies when riding in 
sleighs. 

A pair of gum shoes fifty years old. 

A pewter basin from Holland, two hundred years old. 

A small tea chest, three sides made of wood of the elm tree 
under which Penn made his treaty with the Indians. 

An old frying-pan from Holland. 

An old gun of the American Revolution. The grandfather 
of the exhibitor owned it at the time of the battle of Mon- 
mouth, and, it is presumed, did service in that engagement. 
A modern cock had been substituted for the old flint lock. 

After the exhibition of these articles, the meeting closed. 



CEIMINAL TEIALS. 

There have been two cases of conviction for murder in this 
county. The first of these murders was committed by Henry 
Crist, in the killing of Chambers, his son-in-law. The parties 
lived in the township of Washington. Chambers's wife had 
repeatedly made complaint to her father of ill treatment by 
her husband. Crist went to the house of Chambers, and at- 
tacked him with a butcher knife. Chambers ran; and, while 
runninof, Crist seized a rifle which hung over the door, and 
shot him: he fell, and, in a few moments, expired without 
speaking. A neighbor, Mrs. Flint, was present and witnessed 
the deed. Crist was arrested, and put into the jail at Salis- 
bury. This jail was made of square, hewed logs, some of 
which may yet be seen lying near the house of Enoch Rails- 
back. The principal witnesses were his wife, a young son, his 
daughter [Mrs. Chambers,] and Mrs. Flint. He was found 
guilty, and sentenced to be hung. The people from the 
remotest parts of the county attended to witness the execution. 

The prisoner was conveyed to the gallows in a wagon, seated 
on his coffin. Daniel Fraley, a Methodist minister, yet re- 
membered by some of the old settlers, standing in the wagon, 



124 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

preached a sermon to the people. At its close the rope was 
adjusted around his neck, the cap drawn over his face, and the 
wagon drawn from under him — a mode of execution not prac- 
ticed at the present time. The murder was committed in the 
autumn of 1815, and the execution took place on the first of 
April, 1816. 

To the foregoing statement, principally taken from Rev. 
Wm. C. Smith's book, before referred to, we subjoin the fol- 
lowing : 

When Crist's son, a youth of about fifteen, was called to the 
witness' stand on the part of the prosecution, Crist said to 
him: "ITow, son, tell the truth, though it may convict your 
father." It is said this son, after the execution of his father, 
took charge of the body, and conveyed it home on a sled, in 
the night, and alone, through the woods, a distance of ten or 
twelve miles. 

An account of the second murder trial and execution, was 
written for the Indiana True llepublican, in 1867, which is in 
substance as follows : 

Hampshire Pitt was tried in November, 1822, for the murder 
of William Mail. Both parties were colored men. The mur- 
der occurred on the farm now owned by Thomas C. Straw- 
bridge, about four miles north of Richmond, on the Newport 
turnpike. Says the writer: "Pitt lived with a woman osten- 
sibly his wife, between whom and Mail he suspected aiT im- 
proper intimacy. His suspicions were thought to be well 
founded, and there was for him, on that account, considerable 
sympathy. Though a bad man, he was a smart, plausible old 
fellow. He was a tinker by trade, and therefore a useful man. 
Traveling, as he did, among the people, mending their old 
pewter ware, and supplying them with new plates, basins, &c., 
and withal making himself agreeable, he had become quite a 
favorite. A large part of the bone and muscle of the young 
Hoosiers of that day is made up of mush and milk partaken 
from basins of his manufacture. For one, I am ready to ac- 
knowledge the full extent of my obligations in this respect." 

Pitt meeting Mail, and being greatly enraged, cried out to 
him as he advanced, " You are there, are you ? Bill Mail, you 
have been in the habit of calling me old man; my name is 



CRIMINAL TRIALS. 125 

HampBhire Pitt, or General Pitt; and if yon call me old man 
again I will put this through you !" flourishing at the same 
time a dagger, with which he almost instantly stabbed him to 
the heart. He was promptly arrested and confined in the old 
log jail at Centerville, which stood immediately east of the 
place where the present jail stands. 

He was tried and found guilty; but Associate Judges Mc- 
Lane and Davenport, over the objections of Judge Eggle- 
ston, granted a new trial. The next jury rendered a similar 
verdict. 

The day of execution was a very unpleasant one ; yet thou- 
sands of men, women, and children flocked to witness the 
scene. A rude scafibld was erected, under which the doomed 
man was driven in a cart. There w^as no trap-door or other ar- 
rangement to give him a fall, thereby breaking his neck and 
shortening his suffering. The rope was adjusted and the cart 
drawn on, leaving him suspended until he was dead. 

Before the day of his execution, Pitt engaged another 
colored man, by giving him his horse, to take charge of his 
body and see it interred. Having got the horse, the colored 
man sold the body for ten dollars in advance, to two physicians 
for dissection, and left the country. Pitt having been informed 
of the fact, sent for Christopher Roddy, who promised to take 
charge of the body after the execution, and keep it from the 
physicians. At the execution, Roddy was present with a cof- 
fin on a sled, and the physicians with a wagon without a coffin. 
After the body was cut down, a struggle for the body ensued, 
and Roddy prevailed. He conveyed the body in the coffin to 
his home in Salisbury, and guarded it through the night, and 
buried it the next day. But fearing the body might be found, 
he disinterred it the next night, and, it is said, carried it on his 
shoulder, without the coffin, some seven miles and buried it in 
the woods. The next day he felled a number of forest trees 
across the grave; and the doctors never got the body. 

Roddy is reputed as having been an intemperate, profane, 
and very wicked man. But he seems not to have entirely lost 
his sense of honor, having faithfully fulfilled his engagement 
with Pitt. He was a Revolutionary soldier, and had served 
during the whole period of the war. 



126 HISTORY OF AVAYXE COUNTY. 

Allusion was made [page 25] to tlie crhniiuil code of In- 
diana territory, Avhicli authorized ivhipping ioY cartmu crimes. 
The writer iu the True Republican, who, in the winter of 
1866, from liia review of the recorded proceedings of " The. 
Courts in the early times in Wayne County," has furnished 
most of the information respecting the two cases of murder, 
informed us also that whipping, ;is a punishment for crime, 
was leyal, as hxte as tlie year 1820, The folh>wing was the 
judgment of the court in the case of a conviction lor lai'ceny : 
"It is considered thtit tlie defendant do make his line to tlie 
state in the sum of live dollars, and that he restore to said 

tlie said one dollar and lil'ty cents, in silver, and 

one ten dollar note on the Lebanon JJanking C'Om})any, of 
the value of ten dollars, and that he receive on his bare back 
Jive lashes." This part of the penalty, however, was remit- 
ted by the governor. 



WAR HISTORY. 



Public Meetings; Enlistments. 

The secession of South Carolina, the (iring on the " Star of 
the West," and the attempted interference with the journey 
of the President-elect to the Capital for inauguration, caused 
tremors of excitement in this as in all other communities. 
But northern people were liltU' inclined to believe that the 
South meant war; nor is it likely that the southernei's IIumu- 
selves anticipated its extent and i-esult. 

The news of the bombarilnient of Fort Sumter fell unex- 
pectedly upon our citizens; but it did not lind them unde- 
cided what to do. In Kichmoiul a [)ublic meeting was called 
on Monday, April 15th, the day on which the news was re- 
ceived, to be held in the evening. The citizens met on the 
corner of Main and Marion streets. The meeting was large 
and enthusiastic, and composed of men of the ditlerent par- 
ties. It was opened with prayer by J. W. T. McMullcn. 
John A. Bridgland, Bell-Everett candidate for elector in the 
recent campaign, was chosen President of the meeting. 
William A. Bickle, Democratic candidate for Congress the 



WAR HISTORY. 127 

year previous; Judge Wm. P. Benton, John Yarjan, John 
C. "Whitriclge, Mr. Bridgland, and John H. Popp, addressed 
the citizens. 

The next day, Governor Morton's call for six regiments for 
three months was received, and Judge Benton opened an enlist- 
ing place at Justice Lyle's office, on South Pearl street, near 
Main. He was the first to sign the enlistment paper. Before 
the next day closed, one full company, [eighty-four men,] was 
enrolled, and forty-fi.ve more men were obtained. On the 
morning of the 18th, about sunrise, the volunteers began to 
assemble, and marched to the depot, accompanied by a vast 
concourse of citizens. They were transported free to In- 
dianapolis, being the first company to arrive at that city. 

The excitement during these two days was equally intense 
elsewhere. At Centerville and Cambridge Cit}'-, parts of com- 
panies were enlisted. Volunteers came in from other town- 
ships. These volunteers left for Indianapolis the day on 
which those from Richmond went. All from this county 
formed part of the Eighth Infantry Regiment, commanded 
by Wm. P. Benton, who was commissioned Colonel. 

Volunteering continued in Richmond. Another company 
was in readiness at the depot on the next Monday [23d]. 
But the requisition upon the state was already full ; and 
while at the depot, a dispatch was received directing this 
company to go into camp on the Fair ground, south of the 
city. The state decided to raise six regiments for one year; 
and this company was sworn into the state service. The Fair 
ground was established as a camp, and named "Camp 
"Wayne;" and preparations were made for organizing and in- 
structing a regiment there. Companies from several coun- 
ties came, and were mustered in as the Sixteenth Regiment. 
This regiment remained in camp until July 23d, when, having 
been transferred to the Federal service, it proceeded to the 
seat of war. It was with the first body of troops that marched 
through Baltimore after the assault on the Sixth Massachu- 
setts Regiment in April. 

On Thursday of that week, [25th,] the Sixth Indiana In- 
fantry, returning from West Virginia, passed through Rich- 
mond. The citizens, apprised of its coming, prepared a 



128 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

breakfast as a welcome to the soldiers of their state. The 
next day the Eighth Regiment was banqueted in a similar 
manner. 

The summer of 1861 was an exciting season. Meetings 
were frequently held throughout the county to secure volun- 
teers. An infantry company was raised for the Nineteenth 
Regiment, by Wm. W. Dudley; two for the Eighth, (three 
years' term,) by Alex. J. Kenny, at Richmond, and F. S. 
"Wysong in the western part of the county, and several parts 
of companies for other regiments and cavalry. Kew regi- 
ments were raised in each congressional district ; and in Au- 
gust companies began to arrive at Camp Wayne for the 
formation of the Thirty-sixth Regiment. George' Hoover, of 
Richmond, and John Sim, of Cambridge City, commanded 
companies from this county. This regiment remained in 
camp until October, when, being full, it left under the com- 
mand of Col. Wm. Grose. 

Preparations were immediately begun for the organization 
of another regiment. Rev. J. W. T. McM alien and Rev. 
Frank A. Hardin were commissioned, and proceeded to raise 
recruits for this regiment, which became the Fifty-seventh. 
John S. McGraw and John Hunt, of Richmond, Joseph F. 
Stidham, of Centerville, and Cyrus W. Burket, of Hagers- 
town, commanded companies raised in this county. Cold 
weather coming on, the soldiers in camp prepared their quar- 
ters for winter. They remained until the 10th of December, 
when they were sent to the field. 

Eelief of Soldiers' Families. 

Hardly had the war broken out, before efforts began to be 
made for the assistance of soldiers' families, the relief of the 
sick and wounded, and for the sanitary needs of those in field 
and hospital. While the first volunteers were at the depot, 
Jesse P. Siddall responded to a call for a speech, by recom- 
mending the appointment of a committee, that the soldiers 
might feel assured that their families would be cared for. 
Lewis Burk, J. A. Bridgland, and Rev. J. W. T. McMuUen 
were appointed. A public meeting was held on the evening 
of the 19th of April, in Starr (now Phillips) Hall. Commit- 



WAR HISTORY. 129 

tees were appointed to urge upon the city council and county 
commissioners the necessity of providing means for the relief 
of such as needed it. The council met in called session the 
next day, and heard the petition of the citizens' meeting. 
Resolutions were adopted providing the needed assistance, and 
authorizing the Mayor to advertise for contributions of pro- 
visions; authorizing money immediately needed to be drawn 
from the treasury; and ordering all city work except repairs 
to be suspended. W. E. Wilcox and Phil. E. Wiggins were 
appointed to ascertain the number of needy families. J. M. 
Paxson was appointed to solicit for provisions, wood, etc., 
among the farmers. Mayor Finley issued a call, and the back 
room of the Warner building became, for a while, the depos- 
itory for the relief provisions. The county commissioners 
took proper action, and, during the following winter, seven 
hundred dollars were dispensed weekly, chiefly in the form of 
orders on the county. These orders were given to the persons 
needing assistance, and readily accepted by merchants and 
provision dealers. 

On the 10th of April, 1862, a public meeting was held in 
Starr Hall, at which was chosen a "sanitary committee" for 
Wayne township. Lewis Burk, J. M. Paxson, John W. Grubbs, 
John M. Gaar, John Roberts, John P. Smith, Stephen R, 
Wiggins, and Christopher C. Beeler, composed this committee. 
Five hundred and, twenty-two dollars were subscribed that even- 
ing. The committee issued an appeal for contributions, and 
requested other townships to co-operate. Several townships 
responded, sending money, clothing, and food for hospital use. 
Washington township was among the first, and sent a large 
contribution. On the 28th of May, 1862, the sanitary com- 
mittee published a report, showing that $1,166.66 had been 
paid in, besides clothing and provisions. Fourteen packages 
had been shipped on the 25th of April to Nashville; thirty- 
three to Pittsburg Landing on the 25th of May; and eighteen 
furnished the State Sanitary Commission on the 12th of May. 

The ladies of Richmond had previoush^ formed a " Soldiers' 
Relief Circle," which, together with the sanitary committee, 
continued labors during the war. Several of the churches 
formed aid societies among their respective memberships. 



130 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

The Social Circle of Union Chapel M. E. Church turned its 
attention to sanitary work, and grew into the largest aid so- 
ciety in the city. Persons not members of the congregation co- 
operated. Much of the money used by these organizations was 
raised by suppers and amateur concerts given by citizens. 
The comfort of the soldiers in Camp Wayne, especially of the 
sick, was constantly attended to by these organizations. 

Calls for More Troops. 

In the summer of 1862, calls were made for large numbers of 
troops. The Sixteenth Kegiment returned from its one year's 
service May 23, and most of its members re-enlisted. Early in 
July, Wm. A. Bickle received a commission as commandant of 
Camp Wayne, with instructions to raise a regiment in the 
Fifth congressional district. He proceeded immediately to that 
work; and, as good inducements were oflPered, and the vic- 
tories of the previous spring had an inspiring efiect, volunteer- 
ing was brisk. The county commissioners appropriated 
$20,000 for bounties. The Nineteenth Battery was recruited 
in the western part of the county, by S. L. Gregg, W. P. 
Stackhouse, and others. It went into camp at Cambridge City 
until August 11, when it left for Indianapolis on the way to 
Kentucky. A large crowd bid it farewell at the Cambridge 
depot. A cavalry company was raised by John S. Lyle, Moses 
D. Leeson, and AY. C. Jeffries. On the 14th of August, they 
reported to Col. Bickle, and shortly afterward went to join the 
Fifth Cavalry Regiment at Indianapolis. In a short time, 
more companies than were necessary for one regiment were 
reported. One regiment, the Sixty-ninth, was organized, and 
the remaining companies went into camp as the nucleus of an- 
other regiment, numbered Eighty-fourth. John H. Finley, of 
Richmond, and Joseph L. Marsh, of Williamsburg, com- 
manded companies in the Sixty-ninth, which were raised in 
this county ; and Wm. A. Boyd, of Centerville, was captain of 
one in the Eighty-fourth. 

In August of 1862, the Confederate Gen. Kirby Smith en- 
tered Kentucky, and threatened Louisville and Cincinnati. 
Unparalleled activity was displayed by Indiana. Troops were 
hurried forward for the defense of the border. The Sixty- 



WAR HISTORY. 131 

ninth Regiment was ordered to Indianapolis for arms. It left 
Camp Wayne on the 18th of August, and on the 30th took 
part in the disastrous battle of Richmond, Ky., where the 
Union forces were compelled to face overwhelming numbers of 
the foe. This regiment suffered terribly in killed and wounded; 
and nearly five hundred were taken prisoners. These prison- 
ers were paroled, and returned to Indianapolis. Meanwhile 
the Eighty-fourth had been organized by Col. Bickle, and 
though not full to the maximum, it was sent to Cincinnati, 
where it was armed and equipped. It left camp September 
10th, under Col. Il^elson Trusler. 

During the siege of Cincinnati Richmond was alive with ex- 
citement. A public meeting was called by the mayor, to be 
held at Engine Hall, ISTo. 2, on the 3d of September. But the 
crowd being so large the meeting adjourned to the Public 
Square, now occupied by the First Ward Public School. Judge 
James Perry presided, and Rev. J. H. Goode acted as secretary. 
It was decided to f)roceed immediately to the formation of 
military companies for drill. A company of Home Guards, 
popularly known as the " Silver Greys," because composed of 
men over the age for active service, had been previously or- 
ganized, and was commanded by Daniel B. Crawford. Three 
other companies — one composed of Germans — were formed. 
By proclamation of the mayor the places of business were 
closed at four o'clock p. m., and the citizens repaired to the 
several places of rendezvous for drill. The principal drill- 
ground was a vacant square, now occupied by the Friends' 
meeting-house and school-house, between Eighth and ]!^inth 
streets, north of Main. This arrangement was continued for 
several weeks until the danger was past. The broken ranks 
of the Sixty-ninth Regiment returned to Camp Wayne, where 
they remained until released from their parol and recruited, 
and on the 18th of November, again left camp under the com- 
mand of Col. Thomas W. Bennett. 

Extraordinary Contributions. 

The winter of 1862-63 was a severe one upon many families, 
whose support and providers were fighting for their country. 
The Aid Societies made frequent appeals to the citizens for as- 



132 HISTORY OF "WAYNE COUNTY. 

sistance, and were thus enabled to alleviate much suffering. 
One morning in January, 1863, twenty-five loagons loaded with 
wood, and one with flour, meal, potatoes, &c., suddenly and un- 
expectedly made their appearance on the streets of Kichmond. 
They were from the farmers in the neighborhood of Middle- 
boro', and were for the " aid and comfort" of soldiers' families. 
A band of musicians volunteered their services, and, hoisting 
the national flag, the donation was paraded through the 
streets, and then delivered where needed. 

On Saturday, February I4tli, a delegation came from Boston 
township, bringing more than sixty cords of wood, three thousand 
founds of flour and meal, besides otlier provisions. A spirit of 
rivalry in this good work was soon developed, and the various 
neighborhoods in the vicinity of Richmond vied with each 
other in contributions of tliis character. On the 28th of Feb- 
ruary, the farmers residing along and near the National road 
east from town, brought, in a large procession, ninety-two 
cords of wood, over two thousand pounds of flour, forty bushels of 
corn meal, six bushels of potatoes, &c. The procession filled 
Main street for a distance of eight blocks ! The following 
Monday the rival procession of farmers residing along and 
near the National road west from town came in. It has never 
been decided which of these contributions was the largest. 
Both parties claimed the palm. 

The Middleboro' farmers having started these generous out- 
pourings, concluded to put a finishing touch to the work for 
this season. So on the 28th of March, they came into town 
with a train of wagons nearly a mile long. Residents of Hills- 
boro', [now "Whitewater,] joined their neighbors of Middle- 
boro'. The farmers along the Liberty turnpike also brought 
in a contribution. A new feature attended this demonstra- 
tion. Fresh beef and poultry were brought in, sold on the 
streets to citizens, and the proceeds given to the aid fund. 
One hundred and ninety-two dollars were thus realized. One 
hundred and twenty -eight cords of .wood, over two thousand pounds 
of flour, and seventy five bushels of meal, besides other pro- 
visions, were contributed. The whole donation amounted in 
value to nearly thirteen hundred dollars. The citizens had 
prepared a reception. The procession was halted on Main 



WAR HISTORY. 133 

street. Ilermon B. Payne made the welcoming speech ; short 
speeches by Elihu Cox, of Middleboro^, Israel "Woodruff, of 
Franklin township, and others. The citizens invited the 
generous farmers to dinner, and the day was one of general 
rejoicing. The influence of these acts extended to other 
towns. Centerville, among others, received a large donation 
on the 19th of March. 

This commendable practice was revived the following au- 
tumn. On the last day of October the " Middleboro' patriots " 
came into Richmond with sixty cords of wood, and a large 
quantity of provisions. The value of this contribution was 
over live hundred dollars. Gov. Morton was present by in- 
vitation, and addressed the farmers and citizens. Generals 
Benton and Mansfield followed in short speeches. The wood 
was delivered to the care of "VYm. Parry, the township trustee, 
who distributed it among the needy. On the following Mon- 
day and Tuesday, some fifty young men of Richmond formed 
a " Saw-buck Brigade," and sawed and split the wood for use. 

Thanksgiving day of that year was the occasion of another 
demonstration. One hundred cords of wood, and pyramids of 
flour, meat, and other provisions, were brought in by the 
farmers along the National road, east of Richmond. The 
citizens prepared a dinner in Starr Hall, which was partaken 
of by soldiers' families and the "wood-haulers." 

The Relief Circle, of which Mrs. L. J. Seymour, Mrs. S. A. 
Wrigley, and Mrs. Martha Smith were ofiicers, prepared large 
quantities of hospital supplies. The Union Chapel Aid So- 
ciety was made an auxiliary by the State Sanitary Commis- 
sion, and did an arduous labor. Mrs. Sarah A. Ilifl', Mrs. 
Margaret J. iSTewtou, Mrs. Sarah Hays, Mrs. Eliza Scott, Miss 
Beulah McPherson, and Miss Jane Morrow, were prominent 
workers. The great battles made demands upon the aid 
societies. Union Chapel Aid Society devoted several days, 
including a Sunday, after the battle of Stone River, to pre- 
paring bandages, &c., for the wounded. 



134 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Morgan's Invasion. 

In July, 1863, the rebel guerilla, John Morgan, crossed the 
Ohio river with his band, and commenced pillaging in South- 
ern Indiana. The day after the invasion, the Mayor of Rich- 
mond issued a proclamation for the citizens to meet in the 
several wards to organize and drill. At ten o'clock Thurs- 
day night, [July 9th,] a dispatch came, calling for the mil- 
itia and volunteers to report at Indianapolis immediately. 
The fire bells were rung, and the citizens assembled to pre- 
pare for their departure, which took place early next morning. 

A battalion of militia had been organized in the county, 
and its companies immediately responded, and large numbers 
of citizens volunteered. Two companies left Richmond, 
commanded by John C. Davis and Daniel B. Crawford. 
Abington sent one company under Capt. Jonathan Jarrett; 
Bethel, one under A. V. Garrett; Centerville, one under J. 
C. Page; Cambridge City, one under G. T. "Weast; Dublin, 
one under W. P. Goolman ; East Germantown, one under 
P. S. Binkley. Three companies were sent to various points, 
and in a week were mustered out and returned home, the 
invaders having been driven into Ohio, where they were cap- 
tured. 

Large Money Contributions. 

A great combination effort to raise money for sanitary pur- 
poses was made in December, 1863, under the direction of the 
Sanitary Committee and Aid Societies, assisted by Chaplain 
J. 11. Lozier, traveling agent for the State Sanitary Commis- 
sion. The whole community, without distinction of party, 
joined in the labors. In llichmond, a supper was given on 
the evening of the 3d of December, an amateur concert the 
next evening, a dinner the day following, and a tableaux ex- 
hibition in the evening. 

The following Monday, [7th,] began a Fair, which continued 
through that week. At Centerville, a dinner, a supper, and 
a concert were given on the 9th and 10th. At Cambridge 
City, a contribution of wood and provisions were brought in 
for soldiers' families, and a liberal subscription taken for the 



WAR HISTORY. 135 

Banitary fund. At Whitewater, a dinner and a supper were 
given. Meetings were held by the state agent in Dublin, 
Milton, Clay township, Abington, Harrison township, Ilagers- 
town, Newport, Williamsburg, Economy, and Dalton town- 
ship. Subscriptions were raised in these places by the eiforts 
of Rev. James Crawford, J. F. ISTicholson, Captain Hale, R. 
Baldridge, J. M. Bolirer, A. H. Harris, Jesse Gates, B. Rey- 
nolds, and others. The net proceeds in Wayne township 
were $7,063.11 ; in Green, $686.80 were raised ; in Washing- 
ton and Center townships, nearly $500 each. The other 
townships swelled the total to $11,300. For this liberal con- 
tribution, Wayne county was honored with the prize banner 
presented by the state officers and Sanitary Commission. 

More Troops Raised. 

A regiment from the Fifth Congressional District was called 
for, September 24, 1863. John F. Kibbey was appointed com- 
mandant of Camp Wayne. 

A cavalry company was raised, and went into camp at the 
same place. Recruiting commenced ; but it was March, 1864, 
before the regiment left camp. It was numbered One Hun- 
dred and Twenty-fourth, and commanded by Col. James Bur- 
gess. James Conner, Jonathan J. Wright, and John Messick, 
of Richmond, and Caleb B. Jackson, of Centerville, were cap- 
tains of companies principally recruited in this county. 

The drafts of 1862 and 1864 called forth considerable activ- 
ity in encouraging volunteering. High bounties were oiFered. 
The larger part of these sums was contributed by the people. 
The county commissioners offered $100 in four installments as 
additional bounty to volunteers. Few townships failed to fill 
their quotas ; and in these the requisition was greatly reduced. 
During the war Wayne county and the townships expended 
for bounties, $379,093.35; for the relief of soldiers' families, 
$184,350. Total, $563,443.35. 

In the spring of 1864, the governors of the Northern States 
offered the National Government large bodies of troops to take 
the places of the veteran forces guarding the rear, and hence 
allow them to go to the front. These new troops were to serve 
for one hundred days. A series of meetings was held in 



136 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Richmond for the purpose of raising a company for this service. 
These meetings began on Tuesday, April 26tli, and continued 
nine evenings. Large sums were subscribed for bounties. The 
city council met on the 28th, and voted ten dollars to each 
volunteer. Ladies offered to take the places of clerks during 
their absence. By contributions and subscriptions nearly one 
thousand dollars were raised for the support of families dur- 
ing the one hundred days. By the 11th of May a company 
was enrolled, and left under the command of Capt. Wm. R. 
Mount. 

The Last Contribution. 

Recruiting and enlisting as veterans were steadily going on 
during the year 1864. The attention to relief and sanitary 
matters was not neglected. Funds were raised by concerts and 
entertainments as in previous years. The approaching winter 
made it necessary again to provide for the needy. A meeting 
of citizens and farmers was held, and it was decided to have a 
combined donation of wood. To encourage a spirit of emula- 
tion, a banner was promised to the largest delegation, and 
purses and bufialo robes of various values to the four delega- 
tions. This demonstration took place December 23, 1864. 
The delegation coming by the National road from the east, 
brought one hundred and eleven cords of icood, nnd took the first 
prize; that from the west by the National road and Williams- 
burg turnpike, seventy cords; that by the Liberty and Boston 
turnpikes, thirty-three cords ; and that by the Hillsboro' and 
the Newport turnpikes, twenty-eight cords. One load from 
the east contained eighteen cords and twenty feet ! 

^nd of the War; Death of Lincoln. 

The news of the capture of 7^ebel Richmond, Virginia, was 
received in loyal Richmond, Indiana, with much rejoicing. On 
the evening of April 3, 1865, speeches were made, cannon 
fired, and bonfires lighted. But wdien the news of Lee's sur- 
render came, one week later, there was a grander outburst of 
joy. Main and other streets had the sidewalks covered with 
sheds and awnings. A movement being made to have them 
removed, their owners, by common consent, took them down. 



"WAR HISTORY. 137 

and, piling them at the stroot-crossiugs, burned them in the 
evening. Business was abandoned; residents of the country 
came in and joined in the demonstrations. 

This joy was soon turned to sorrow. When the sad news 
of the assassination of President Lincoln reached Kichmond, 
all business was suspended, stores and shops were closed, flags 
displayed at half mast, bells tolled, and doors of business 
places and of dwellings draped in mourning. Crowds ap- 
peared on the streets, and the deepest feeling was manifested. 
Men of all parties lamented as if it were a personal affliction. 
In the afternoon a large meeting assembled in Starr Hall. 
Speeches were made, and expressive resolutions adopted. 
Similar meetings were held at llagerstown and other places. 

The train bearing the remains of the President, passed 
through Wayne county on the morning of April 30th. - A 
train containing state otticials, citizens of Indianapolis and 
others, came to act as escort. It met the funeral cortege at the 
state line, and together they came through Kichmond at two 
o'clock in the morning. An arch of mourning spanned the 
track near the depot; and amid the tolling of bells and dirges 
of music, the trains passed. An immense crowd was present, 
notwithstanding the early hour. 

At Centerville a large concourse of people awaited the cor- 
tege ; and the depot was draped in mourning. Salvoes of ar- 
tillery paid homage to the dead at Cambridge City. There 
and at Dublin were arches over the track, through which the 
slow moving trains passed in the dim light of morning. 

The war was now ended. During its continuance consider- 
able activity was manifested in the towns. Hundreds of 
families moved into the larger towns to be within the reach of 
assistance if needed. Especially was this true of Richmond ; 
hence the calling for those large donations which were made 
at that place. The surviving soldiers returned to their former 
occupations in the summer of 1865, and gradually the entire 
community resumed the ways of peace. 



138 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 



POPULATION OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Townships. 1870. 

Abington 833 

Boston 884 

Center 2,855 

Clay 1,094 

Dalton 766 

Franklin 1,385 

Green 1,293 

Harrison 580 

Jackson 4,949 

JeflFerson 1,785 

New Garden 1,519 

Perry 876 

Washington 2,040 

Wayne 3,734 

City of Eichmond— 1st Ward 1,909 

2d Ward 1,760 

3d Ward 881 

4th Ward 3,173 

5th Ward 1,722 9,445 

32,938 29,568 25,297 

Population of the Towns in 1870. 

Abington 161 Franklin 80 

Bethel 88 Hagerstown 830 

Cambridge City 2,162 Jacksonburg... 109 

Centerville 1,077 Milton 823 

Dalton 73 Newport 343 

Dublin 1,076 Washington 379 

East Germantown 536 Whitewater 144 

Economy 229 Williamsburg 248 

Note. — The j^opulation of the towns is included in the population of 
the townships. 



NTY. 

I860. 


1850. 


924 


1,042 


897 


936 


2,765 


2,822 


1,069 


1,052 


789 


855 


1,283 


1,362 


1,319 


1,532 


644 


766 


4,311 


3,466 


1,752 


1,723 


1,370 


1,609 


837 


868 


2,171 


2,305 


2,834 


3,516 


6,603 


1,443 



PROPERTY AND TAXES. 139 



PEOPEETY AND TAXES. 

A regular annual statement of the valuation and assessment 
of real and personal estate, prior to 1842, is not to be found in 
the records of the county. At first, lands were classed as first- 
rate, second-rate, and third-rate, and taxed, per 100 acres, 10, 
20, 30, or 40 cents, according to quality. Taxes were also laid 
per head on horses, and sometimes on wagons, watches, and 
other articles. And what is, perhaps, not generally known, 
there were, for a few years, taxes on slaves and men of color. 

For the first two years mentioned below, only the taxes 
levied are given. 

1815— County Land Tax, $424.24; Tax on Horses, $739; on Slaves, 
$20; on Men of Color, $15 ; Merchants' Licenses, $80.86. Total Taxes, 
$1,265.10. 

1819— County Land Tax, $718.87; Tax on Horses, $918.08; Town Lots, 
$273.04; State Tax, $143.74. Total Tax, $3,347.73. 

Beal Estate. Personal. Total. Tax. 

1842 $3,505,548 $828,533 $4,334,081 

1845 3,508,958 985,463 4,554,421 $19,939 

1850 3,913,385 1,364,101 5,277,486 

1855 4,991,803 3,889,097 8,880,900 74,012 

1860 9,976,794 4,706,794 14,683,237 93,845 

1865 11,617,105 6,406,195 18,517,885 855,442 

1870 12,214,330 9,070,880 21,285,210 348,556 



140 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 



POST-OFFICES AND POSTMASTERS. 

The following lists embrace the names of the post-offices 
established, and of all the postmasters appointed in the county 
since its organization, with the exception of a few of the 
earlier ones. By a fire in the post-office at Washington many 
years since, a portion of the records were burnt, and the dates 
of some of the early appointments can not be ascertained: 

Ahington. — Ralph Shawmbourie, appointed . Daniel Weaver, March 

2, 1837. Powell Slade, April 18, 1861. Bennett D. Bonebrake, March 
17, 1871. 

Beeson. — George A. Richmond, Aug. 25, 1865. [Discontinued Oct. 14, 
1868.] 

Bethel— Wra. E. Hindman, Jan. 7, 1850. Joseph Unthank, Jan. 19, 

1850. Curtis W. Wiggs, Dec. 30, 1850. John A. Unthank, Sept. 29, 1851. 
Jacob Harlan, Oct. 1, 1853. Richard Henderson, March 31, 1854. Peter 
M. Ellis, April 23, 1856. Raiford Wiggs, Feb. 12, 1858. Nathan Harlan, 
March 20, 1858. Wm. A. Chance, Jan. 5, 1860. Nathan Harlan, June 3, 
1861. Martin Wiley, Jan. 14, 1863. Jesse P. Parker, Jan. 10, 1866. 
Nathan Harlan, July 3, 1866. Jesse E. Jones, April 13, 1867. "Nathan 
Harlan, Sept. 20, 1869. 

Boston. — Wm. Russey, March 21, 1837. Thomas Messick, Dec. 6, 1839. 
Isaac Craig, July 8, 1842. Louis C. Evans, July 5, 1844. Aaron Druley, 
April 8, 1848. Jesse Pearce, Aug. 1, 1849. John H. Stearns, Oct. 22, 

1851. Joseph T. Druley, Dec. 3, 1852. John Deal, July 17, 1854. Joseph 
T. Druley, April 3, 1856. Eliphalet Stanley, Sept. 14, 1857. Benj. F. 
Deal, June 2, 1858. John Steel, Jan. 7, 1860. Jacob F. Rinehart, April 
8, 1865. Nicholas F. Templeton, Oct. 10, 1866. David C. Jenks, June 2, 
1868. Oliver II. Fonts, June 15, 1869. Jacob F. Rinehart, March 7, 1870. 

Cambridge. — Sanford Lackey, March 11, 1835. John H. Brown, March 
15, 1843. Michael Johnsonbaugh, March 16, 1849. Alexander W. Ray, 
Dec. 10, 1849. Simon S. Clackner, May 30, 1851. John C. Lutz, Dec. 28, 

1852. Nathan Raymond, June 2, 1853. James M. Cockefair, May 6, 1858. 
John C. Lutz, Aug. 27, 1860. John A. Smith, March 16, 1861. [Name 
changed June 30, 1864, to] 

Cambridge City.— John A. Smith, June 30, 1864. Nathan R. Bennett, 
May 28, 1867. Lemuel R. Johnson, March 26, 1869. 

Centerville. — Elijah Fisher, . John E. Dunham, Oct. 5, 1832. 

Myers Seaton, Aug. 16, 1843. John B. Stitt, April 26, 1853. Benj. Jemi- 
son, July 2, 1856. Isaac H. Julian, March 16, 1861. Therese A. Widup, 



POST-OFFICES AND POSTMASTERS. 141 

June 2, 1865. Cynthia Tuttle, Oct. 27, 1866. Therese Widup, March 24, 
1869. 

Chester. — David W. Lupton, Dec. 13, 1848. James Cammack, May 17, 
1849. Jacob Purinton, Oct. 30, 1850. Amos Stackhouse, Sept. 24, 1851. 
Joseph Fulghum, June 21, 1853. Samuel C. Iredell, Sept. 5, 1854. Wm. 
B. Williams, Jan. 28, 1856. Larkin T. Ellis, Jan. 13, 1857. Richard Hen- 
derson, Jan. 14, 1859. Macamy Wasson, April 15, 1861. James M. Shute, 
July 6, 1864. Wm. Bennett, June 2, 1865. Jacob Branson, Sept. 23, 1865. 
Wm. Bennett, March 19, 1866. Nathan S. Williams, April 16, 1867. John 
W. Martin, Dec. 11, 1868. 

Cox's Mills.— Enos Thomas, April 9, 1850. Wm. Wright, June 16, 1854. 
Alexander Caffey, June 23, 1855. Wm. Thomas, April 27, 1860. Charles 
T. Price, Jan. 16, 1861. Alonzo Hunt, June 3, 1862. John N. Cox, July 
3, 1865. Robert Cox, Jan. 21, 1868. [Office discontinued June 29, 1868; 
re-established SejDt. 9, 1868.] Elihu Cox, appointed Sept. 9, 1868. 

Da^;on.— [See Palmyra.] John W. Smith, Feb. 13, 1838. Charles Bur- 
roughs, April 23, 1840. Wm. Davis, May 30, 1842. Samuel Mitchell, 
April 15, 1846. Isaac Reynolds, April 6, 1847. Wm. 0. Arment, July 31, 
1848. Henry D. Root, Oct. 30, 1850. Clarkson Reynolds, Jan. 20, 1853. 
John B. Routh, Jan. 30, 1854. Clarkson Reynolds, March 7, 1855. Wm. 
S. Chamness, Aug. 22, 1855. 

Dublin.— HAxnuel Schoolfield, Jan. 8, 1833. Noah W. Miner, Nov. 20, 
1846. Henry Canutt, May 9, 1848. Henry A. Schoolfield, July 6, 1849. 
Ezra Walton, May 18, 1850. George W. Miller, April 25, 1853. Ezra 
Walton, Feb. 8, 1855. Samuel Hervey, Dec. 5, 1862. James B. McGrew, 
Dec. 29, 1868. 

East Germantown. — Jacob Sowers, March 31, 1846. Theodore Riley, Sept, 
29, 1851. Lucius A. West, Oct. 20, 1851. Peter Manning, April 15, 1852. 
Jacob Sowers, April 26, 1853. Henry B. Jamison, April 18, 1861. Philip 
S. Binkley, Feb. 14, 1865. Frederick Burkert, Nov. 7, 1865. 

Economy. — Matthew Williams, . Barrett Barnett, Dec. 28, 1832. 

John Thornburgh, May 9, 1838. Andrew Spillard, Feb. 14, 1842. Barnar 
bas Coffin, Aug. 16, 1842. Samuel Hervey, Jan. 21, 1846. Absalom 
Wright, March 1, 1852. Jonathan B. Clark, Dec. 8, 1865. George W. 
Robbins, June 4, 1867. 

Greens Fork.—\Nm. W. Bunnell, Aug. 22, 1828. James W. Scott, Jan. 
2, 1841. Elias F. Halliday, April 20, 1848. Edwin F. Ogborn, April 22, 
1851. Moses Hatfield, Dec. 19, 1851. Cyrus E. Gates, Jan. 30, 1854. 
Thomas M. Kerr, April 11, 1855. Moses Hatfield, March 25, 1859. Jona- 
than Elliott, April 15, 1861. Albert H. Gunckel, Nov. 20, 1862. Moses 
Hatfield, March 23, 1864. Martin L. Roller, May 31, 1866. Wm. S. Hat- 
field, April 7, 1870. 

Hagerstown. — [See Nettle Creek.] Wm. Murray, June 20, 1836. Wm. 
Baker, May 5, 1837. James E. Reeves, July 23, 1839. Elijah Vansant, 
March 21, 1840. Joshua Howell, May 1, 1840. Thomas Williams, Nov. 
20, 1846. George Debolt, Nov. 10, 1848. Robert Gordon, June 1, 1849. 
Wm. M. Thornburgh, June 27, 1849. Bird HawkinsTNov. 29, 1852. 



142 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

George Debolt, May 16, 1853. Walkin Williams, April 5, 1861. Wm. J. 
Spencer, March 27, 1867. Margaret A. Spencer, Jan. 29, 1868. Alexan- 
der C. Walker, March 29, 1869. 

Jacksonburgh. — Abner M. Bradbury, . Calvin B. McCrae, Jan. 10, 

1833. John Berry, June 22, 1833. Wm. A. Refner, April 4, 1835. Thad- 
deus Wright, Dec. 29, 1843. Moses D. Leeson, Feb. 20, 1846. Neal Hart, 
March 24, 1848. John Berry, May 2, 1849. James M. Flood, March 27, 
1867. Amandus J. Boyer, April 7, 1868. Enos Beard, April 26, 1869. 
Lewis T. Bond, April 22, 1870. 

^aforama.— John W. Steffy, May 30, 1862. [Discontinued Jan. 13, 1865.] 

ilf^Vcon.— Elijah Coffin, . Henry Develin, June 19, 1833. John 

Talbot, March 14, 1844. Henry Develin, April 5, 1844. Edward Roberts, 
March 13, 1849. Wm. McLaughlin, Aug. 24, 1853. Luther C. Chamber- 
lin, Jan. 25, 1854. Edward Roberts, April 20, 1861. Wm. H. Shaw, Oct. 
23, 1866. Roland 0. Jones, Dec. 3, 1867. Richard Wallace, Aug. 31, 1868. 
Lewis Ellis, Feb. 12, 1869. 

Neits Station. — Washington Woods, Aug. 24, 1857. Macamy Wasson, 
Sept. 8, 1857. [Discontinued Aug. 21, 1859 ; re-established Sept. 21, I860.] 
Adam C. Mizenei-, Sept. 21, 1860. [Discontinued Aug. 17, 1861; re-estab- 
lished Aug. 27, 1861.] Ezra Nye, Aug. 27, 1861. [Discontinued June 3, 
1862.] 

Nettle Creek. — Wm. Murray, . [Changed to Hagerstown, June 

20, 1836.] 

New Garden. — Henry H. Way, March 25, 1828. Joel Parker, June 7, 
1838. Stanton Judkins, July 19, 1850. Jopatha S. Sellers, Dec. 28, 1857. 
Joel Parker, Feb. 9, 1858. 

Olive Hill.— Oliver H. Shearon, Aug. 20, 1857. Wm. Brooks, April 15, 
1858. Addison H. Harris, May 18, 1860. John F. Medaris, June 14, 
1861. Daniel Culbertson, Feb. 1, 1866. Addison H. Harris, April 5, 1869. 
George W. Ebersol, March 7, 1870. 

Palmyra. — Silas H. Beeson, May 25, 1835. Isaac W. Beeson, July 26, 
1837. [Name changed to Dalton.] 

Richmond. — Robert Morrisson, 1818. Daniel Reid, 1829. James W. 
Borden, Aug. 27, 1836. Lynde Elliott, Feb. 25, 1840. Achilles Williams, 
May 31, 1841. Daniel D. Sloan, Aug. 16, 1843. James Elder, Jan. 10, 
1846. Caleb R. Williams. March 16, 1849. James Elder, April 18, 1853. 
Achilles Williams, April 2, 1861. Edwin A. Jones, Oct. 26, 1866. Isaac 
H. Julian, April 5, 1869. Benj. W. Davis, May 25, 1871. 

Walnut Level. — Lafayette Martindale, Oct. 5, 1865. [Discontinued Dea 
13, 1865.] 

Webster.— kWen Teagle, Jan. 6, 1851. Joel Jeffery, Jun., Jan. 13, 1852. 
Isaac G. Sheward, Dec. 19, 1855. Addison H. Harris, April 12, 1858. 
Samuel Cook, June 1, 1860. Wm. Brooks, June 14, 1860. Simon Bond, 
Oct. 30, 1866. 

Whitewater. — Jonathan D. Gray, July 10, 1832. John Price, Jan. 31, 
1833. Stephen Elliott, Jan. 16, 1834. John H. Bruce, May 9, 1836. 
Jonathan R. Schenck, Feb. 13, 1840. Wm. B. Schenck, Nov. 2, 1842. 



POST-OFFICES AND POSTMASTERS. 143 

Wm. S. Bunch, Sept. 13, 1845. Peter M. Ellis, Nov. 5, 1845. Robert W. 
Hamilton, Sept. 17, 1849. James N. Starbuck, Nov. 5, 1852. Robert W. 
Hamilton, Dec. 5, 1852. Thomas T. Courtney, April 14, 1854. Lorenzo 
D. Bunch, Nov. 3, 1855. Peter M. Ellis, Feb. 29, 1860. John McFarland, 
March 16, 1861. Benj. W. Addleman, Jan. 9, 1864. 

Williamshurgh. — John Hough, about 1832. Fernando H. Lee, April 1, 
1837. Moses Davisson, Sept. 16, 1839. Samuel Johnson, Nov. 27, 1849. 
Joseph F. Reynolds, June 12, 1862. Wm. P. Campbell, May 18, 1863. 
James R. Elliott, Sept. 24, 1863. James L. Pearce, Dec. 2, 1864. 



144 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 



ABINGTON TOWNSHIP. 

The township of Abington was formed in February, 1837. 
Although one of the hater organized' townships, the eastern 
part of it is among the earliest settled portions of the county. 

John Endsley, formerly from South Carolina, and in 1805 
from Ohio, settled in what is now the east, part of Abington, 
on John's Creek. With him, from Ohio, came his brother 
Abraham Endsley, who settled on the "Whitewater, a mile 
from the mouth of Elkhorn, and two miles from town; and 
John Templeton, who settled about fifteen miles south, in now 
Union county. John Endsley traveled the distance between 
South Carolina and Wayne county seven times; five times on 
horseback. The farm on which he settled and died was after- 
ward owned and occupied by his younger son John until his 
death in 1870. James, the elder son, resides on the farm ad- 
joining on the west, being that on which Andrew Endsley had 
settled, who was the father of Andrew, Jun., John, Sen., 
Abraham, Hugh, Thomas, Samuel, and Peter Endsley. 

In 1805, John Cox, from Kentucky, purchased the land of 
which the site of the present town of Abington is a part. lie 
died in March, 1811. His death is said to have been the first 
in the township. The land was inherited by his son John, 
whose sons were Joseph and John. Joseph and his father laid 
out the town, the plat of which was recorded December 5, 
1817. 

Charles Hunt, from North Carolina, settled in the south-east 
part of the present township, in the year 1807. His sons, 
George, John, William, Smith, Charles, and Stephen G., pre- 
ceded him the same year. Jonathan, James, and Timothy, 
came two or three years later. George was the first surveyor 
in the county, and the first clerk of the county courts. Tim- 
othy settled about a mile east of town, where he and his wife 
both died. The farm is owned by his sons Charles and Levi, 
who live on it, and Andrew, who lives in town. Smith set- 
tled in the north-east part of the township, and died in 1855; 



ABINGTON TOWNSHIP. 145 

Stephen G., near James Endsley's; John Hunt, north-east of 
town ; lands owned by his sons, Levi and Charles Hunt, and 
Wilson Hunt. 

Henry Fender, from ITorth Carolina, after a sojourn of a 
year or two eight miles south of Richmond, with six children, 
settled in 1810 or 1811, on the farm where his son Henry L. 
now resides, half a mile north-west of town, on the Centerville 
turnpike. He also entered the land where others of the family 
afterward settled. His sons were Jonathan, who removed 
from the county; Gabriel, who settled a half mile west of 
town, and is dead ; Jacob, who settled and still lives a mile and 
a half from town, on the Centerville turnpike; Littleton, who 
died near Kankakee, 111., and whose sons, John Milton and 
James H., reside in the township; Henry L., on his father's 
homestead ; and John H. 

Gabriel Fender, brother of Henry, Sen., bought of David 
Railsback the farm three-fourths of a mile north-east of town, 
now owned by !N"icholas Smith. He removed to South Bend. 

Thomas Moffitt settled three-fourths of a mile south of town. 
By a change in county bounds his farm has been taken into 
Union county. On it was one of the forts built during the 
war of 1812, as a means of protection against the Indians. 
Another was built on the farm of "Wm. Lewis, about a mile 
from the former. David Railsback settled near town in 1807, 
and died October 17, 1856. [Sk.] 

William Dye, from Kentucky, settled, in 1810, one mile 
south-east of the town. [Sk.] 

The following are names of some of the earlier settlers, but 
the years in which they respectively settled have not been 
ascertained : 

Thomas Bradbury first settled four miles south-east of the 
town, now Union county, afterward two miles north of town; 
land now owned in part by Henry Paddock. James Lamb, 
from Scotland, settled, about 1818, near the mouth of Elkhorn, 
where now Joseph Boon Lamb resides. He died in 1841, 
aged 85. John Lamb, son of James, settled near his father, 
where his widow now lives. William, another son, on the 
farm now owned by C. C. Beeler, in Boston township. He 
died at Keokuk, Iowa. 



146 HIST.RY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

"Wm. Jarrett settled about two and a half miles north-west 
of town; land now owned by J. W. Robbins, James Jarrett, 
and jSTelson Gable. George and Levi Jarrett settled near their 
brother William ; and another brother, Eli, where M. Rank 
now lives. 

David Carson settled in the north-east part of the township, 
where now his son David resides. He was son-in-law of 
Richard Rae, one of the lirst three settlers in Wayne county. 
John Plankenhorn bought of Wm. James the land now owned 
by his son, John Plankenhorn. Henry Long settled where 
Anderson Sweet lives, two miles north-west of the town. Ed- 
mund Jones, a native of Virginia, settled early three miles 
north-west of the town, now in his 84th year. John Hendricks 
early owned the land where now Isam Stevens and John 
Madden reside. 

John Wright settled near the north line of the township, and 
is still living, in his 85th year. John Ellis, where H. Wright 

afterward settled, on land now owned by Wright's heirs. 

Spahr entered early several sections in the north-west 'part of 
the township. On these lands, at present, are Daniel, John, 
and Mary Spahr Burris, Joseph D. Spahr, Samuel Clevenger, 
Philip Jenkins, and John S. Henwood. Michael Helms, from 
Virginia, bought lands in the south-west part of the township, 
now principally owned by his son, Isaiah Helms. Thomas 

, where now George Rank resides. Daniel Clevenger, 

on land now owned by George Rodenberger, south part of the 
township ; also bought where Samuel Clevenger, Jun., lives. 

In the south-west part of the township are lands now or 
lately owned by J. Jones, E. McCashin ; in the south 2^art, by 
D. Lee, S. Dye, A. Dye, the early settlers on which have not 
been ascertained. 

In the vicinity of the town are lands now or lately owned 
by I. M. F. Stevens, P. Slade, L. Manning, M. Manning, D. 
Weaver, J. Long, Merriman Brumfield, and others, the names 
of the first settlers on which have not been obtained. Nathan, 
son of David Railsback, Sen., (not the first settler,) settled on 
the land now owned by his heirs, about two miles north of 
town. 

In the north part of the township the names have not been 



ABINGTON TOWNSHIP. 147 

obtained of the early settlers on the lands now or lately owned 
by M. Robbius, J. R. Meek, J. Crow, J. Frost and J. F. Rob- 
bins, R. Stevens, J. M. Snider, and others; also, A. Stinson, J. 
Stafer, J. Stinson, and S. Stevens in the Avestern part of the 
township. 

Hugh Endsley, brother of John, Sen., put up the first grist- 
mill [corn-cracker] on East Fork, a little below the mouth of 
Elkhorn, in 1808. Henry Whitinger, a few years after, built 
there a hewed log one, with two runs of stones, one for corn 
and one for wheat. It was afterward bought by Julius C. Wood, 
who built a good frame flouring mill, now owned by his son, 
A^alentine Wood, and standing idle. The second grist-mill 
was built about the year 1826, nearly a mile from the village, 
by Joseph Cox. He sold it to Rafe Shawmbourie, who put up 
a better one, having a run of burr stones, and sold it to Merri- 
man Brumfjeld, who built another on or near the same site, 
with a saw-mill attached. Another saw-mill was built by 
Thomas Manning, at Abingtou, who, some years after [about 
1839] sold it to D. & J. Weaver, who attached a carding machine 
and fulling mill, and in 1845 built a large woolen factory. This 
proving unprofitable, the building was sold and removed to the 
village for a wagon and carriage shop. The same firm built a 
large flouring mill a short distance below the old site, also a 
saw-mill in 1849, which are now owned by John B. Craft & Co. 

The first Carding Machine — a rude establishment — was put up 
by Richard Sedgwick and Smith Hunt, at the mouth of Elk- 
horn. John Brower next [1824, or about that 3'ear,] built a 
carding and fulling mill near the north part of the town. 

The first Merchant in Abington was Moses Cox, son of Jc^n 
Cox, Jun., about the year 1818. Some of his earlier suc- 
cessors — though, perhaps, not in the order mentioned, were 
Samuel Hall, Hafer & Glanten, Middlecough & Beeks, Bone- 
brake & Manning. Later, the following were here as early, 
at least, as at the dates mentioned: Whitinger & Matchett, 
Thomas Ellis, and Michael Donlan & Co., in 1839; Wm. A. 
Beeks, Wm. Lipscomb, John Leach, in 1840 ; Williams & 
Dunbar, in 1841; James Rubey, Simpson Dye, in 1842; White 
& Hunt, in 1843 ; David M. Dunbar, Whitinger & Dye, E. F. 
Donlan, 1845. Present merchants, Joshua Dye, grocer ; Ha- 
man Dobbs, dry goods. 



148 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

The first Blacksmith was John Hunt, who was also a gunsmith. 
His widow, a daughter of Lazarus Whitehead, is still living, at 
the age of about 84. 

The first Religious Society was the Methodist Episcopal, organ- 
ized at an early period of the settlement of the township. 
Among its early members were Thomas Moffitt and his wife; 
John Cox, his wife and son James; Peter Stevens, a preacher 
and also the first school teacher, near MojHitt's ; Henry Long, 
also a preacher, and his wife ; Eli and Clark Penwell, and 
David Railsback, and their wives ; Henry Fender, his son 
Jacob, and John Fender, Sen. The first preaching was in 
dwellings. Their first meeting-house was a log building on 
the hill, near the site of their present brick house. 

The United Brethren formed a society about the year 1818. 
Among their early members were Isaac Shelby, an exhorter, 
Thomas Manning, Wm. Dye, Daniel Clevenger, with their 
wives, and George Bonebrake, a preacher. Their first regular 
preacher is believed to have been John Ross. The society 
built a frame house about the year 1828; the present brick 
house in 1854-55. This was a well-built house, and its interior 
was well and neatly finished. [It has, since the above was 
written, been nearly or quite destroyed by fire.] 

As in other places along the Whitewater, rattlesnakes 
abounded here at an early day. About a mile above w^here 
the town now is, a number of women who were, on a Sunday, 
sauntering, for pastime, along the stream, are said to have 
killed, with clubs and poles, upward of thirty rattlesnakes. 

The Toion of Abington was laid out in 1817, by John and 
Joseph Cox, proprietors. The certificate of the survey was 
recorded November 5, 1818. 

Biographical and Genealogical. 

William Dye, a native of New Jersey, removed to Ken- 
tucky, and thence to Wayne county in 1810, settled one mile 
south-east of where the town now is. He served in the war 
of 1812, and died in 1820. His widow died on the farm in her 
88th year. Their children, besides one that died in infancy, 
were John, Joshua, and Ellison, who were born in Kentucky ; 
Simpson, Phebe, Eli, who died at 24, and Nancy. John and 






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■«>;: 





















[fflAIST C^ttIIMf„ 



ABINGTON TOWNSHIP. 149 

Ellison removed to Hancock county. Joshua married Mary 
Nicholas, and had nine children; six are living. He has been 
for many years, and is still a merchant in town. 

Charles Hunt, from North Carolina, settled in the south- 
east part of the present township in the year 1807, about eight 
miles south-westerly from Richmond, and built, the same year, 
a grist-mill [corn cracker] on the Elkhorn, the first in the 
county. He had been preceded by his sons George, John, 
Smith, and William, who had been sent on earlier in the sea- 
son to build the mill, accompanied by their sister Sally, who 
came to cook for them. Charles Hunt had nine sons and four 
daughters. The sons were : 1. Jonathan; 2,. James; 3. Timo- 
thy, who came with their wives some two years after the others. 
Timothy settled a mile east of town, where he and his wife 
both died. The farm is owned by his sons Charles and Levi, 
who live on it, and Andrew, who resides in town. 4. George, 
who married Patsey, daughter of Lazarus Whitehead; was a 
surveyor, and the first clerk of the county courts, 5. John, who 
married Polly Whitehead, also a daughter of L. Whitehead, 
and had nine children, all of whom but one were married, as 
follows: Caroline was married to Samuel Osborn; William, to 
Harriet Smelser; Patsey, to Horton Ferguson, and resides at 
Milton ; Lazarus, to a daughter of Dr. Matchett, of Abingtou ; 

Wilson, to Beeson, and lives in Abington township ; Lo- 

vinia, deceased, unmarried ; was married to David Hale, 

in Abington township. [Names of Mrs. Hale and the two 
other sisters not furnished.] John Hunt was probably the first 
blacksmith in Wayne county, and was also a gunsmith. He 
died October 30, 1851, in his 75th year. His widow, Mary 
Hunt, more tkmiliarly and widely known as Polbj Hunt, whose 
portrait is here inserted, is still living, in her 84th year. 6. 
Smith, sixth son of Charles Hunt, married Betsey, a daughter 
of James Lamb; settled in the township, and died October 6, 
1855, in his 73d year. 7. William married Elizabeth, a daugh- 
ter of Isaac Esteb. 8. Charles married Boon, of Ken- 
tucky. 9. Stephen G. married a daughter of James Lamb, 
and died November 18, 1837, aged 42 years. The daughters 
of Charles Hunt, Sen., were Polly, who married An- 
drews; liebecna, who married Bryan, of Kentucky; 



150 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Sally, Richard Sedgwick; Nancy, David T. Wjatt; Catharine, 
Thomas Bradbury. 

David Railsback was born in Loudon county, Ya., Decem- 
ber 12, 1769, and was married to Sarah Stevens. He removed 
to Xorth Carolina; thence, in 1806, to Whitewater, and settled 
a half mile east of where Abington now is, in March, 1807. 
He afterward removed to a farm now owned by Merriman 
Brumfield. He died October 17, 1856. He had twelve chil- 
dren, five of whom were born in this county. All lived to be 
married, and to raise large families; none having less than 
six, and one as many as seventeen. His children were: 1. 
Mary, wife of Wm. Lewis; they live in Iowa. 2. Enoch, w^ho 
married Nancy Fouts. 3. Judith, wife of Thomas Cobb; re- 
moved to Lawrence county, Ind. 4. Edward, who married 
Frances, daughter of James Hunt, and died in Iowa, in 1859. 
5. William, who married Mary Rhodes ; resides at Kankakee, 
111. 6, 7. Caleb and 3Iatthew, twins, who married Nancy and 
Sarah Barnhill. Matthew died in 1844; Caleb lives in War- 
ren county. 8. Joel, who married Elizabeth Fouts, and lives 
in Wayne township. 9. David, who married Mary Smith, in 
Wayne township. 10. Nathan, who married Sina, daughter 
of Smith Hunt, and died in 1863. 11. John, who married 
Pamelia, daughter of Jesse Davenport, and died in 1860. 12. 
Sarah, wife of Larkin Garr, died in 1857. 

Peter Smith, a native of Maryland, came from Kentucky 
as earl}^ it is said, as 1805, and entered several quarter sections 
of land, though he did not settle on it until 1820. His chil- 
dren were : 1. Nicholas, who married Rebecca, a daughter of 
George Hunt, and lives near town. 2. 3Iary, who married 
David Railsback. 3. Barbara, who married Christopher C. 
Beeler, now of Richmond. 4. John P., who married Mary 
Sedgwick, deceased, a few years ago. He now resides one and 
a half miles west of Richmond. 5. George 11.^ who married 
Clarissa, daughter of Joseph Lewis, of Green township. 6. 
James, who married Mary H. Hunt. 7. Irvin, who lives in 
Alexandria, Madison county. 8. Joseph W., unmarried. 9. 
Margaret, wife of Nelson Crow, who lives on the homestead of 
her father, adjoining the farm of George Smith, but lying on 
the east side of the township line, in Boston township. 



BOSTON TOWNSHIP. 151 



BOSTON TOWNSHIP. 

This township was formed from Wayne in February, 1835, 
and lies in tlie south-east corner of the county. Its length 
east and west is 6 miles ; its breadth north and south is 4 
miles, making an area of 24 square miles. The principal 
stream in this township is the Elkhorn, which enters it about 
IJ miles west of Ohio line, and, running a south-westerly 
course, leaves the township If miles south of the north-west 
corner, about half a mile above the mouth of the stream. 
Some of the earlier settlements in the county were n ade 
within its limits. With the exception of Holman, Rue, and 
a few others in that neighborhood, and John Cox, the Ends- 
leys, and perhaps a few others in what is now called Abing- 
ton, there were probably no earlier settlers in Wayne county. 
Thomas Bulla, Jacob Fonts, and Jesse Davenport settled on 
the Elkhorn, 4 or 5 miles south-east of Richmond ; Daven- 
port and one or two of the Foutses, lower down, within the 
present township of Boston — all the same year in whicli the 
Hoovers settled north of Richmond. The Hunts, the next 
year, settled on and near the Elkhorn, several miles below 
where Davenport settled. 

In the north-west part of the township, Peter Weaver set- 
tled in 1807, on a part of the section, [19,] in the north-west 
corn: r of the township ; the land now owned by Christopher 
C. Eeeler, of Richmond. John Collins, in 1807, settled 
where Milton H. Beeson lives. James Lamb, a native of 
Scotland, on land now owned by Catharine, widoAv of John 
Lamb. James Lamb died in September, 1841, aged 85 years. 
George Stevenson, on land now owned by his descendants. 
Abraham Gaar, from Kentucky, in April, 1807, where his son 
Larkin now resides. Aaron Martin, in 1807 or 1808, on a 
quarter, a part of which is now owned by Jeptha Turner. 
Jackson Rambo, an early settler, who died in 1816, aged 55 
years, and in 1846, his Avidow, in her 87tli year; his land 



152 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

owned after his decease by James Sulser, now by his sons, 
Garrison and Hiram Sulser. 

Lazarus AVhitehead, in 1806, settled on land now owned by 
John Sedgwick. William Burk, on land now a part of the 
farm of Stephen Farlow. Wright Lancaster, from N. C, in 
1808, on the quarter lately owned by George and ISathan 
Farlow, now by Wm. Paddock. Christopher Roddy, a black- 
smith, on land now owned by John Eaper. Joshua Meek, 
where now George W. Stevenson lives. Hugh Cull, in 1806, 
on the land now owned by John W. Hort, lately by James 
P. Burgess. Isaac Beeson, from N. C, in 1807, where his 
son Augustus Beeson lives, liobert Grimes, about 1808, on 
land now owned by his son Robert, and Henry Rodenburg. 
Abraham Esteb, on lands where Samuel and John Moore, 
and Alfred and Jacob S., sons of John Moore, reside. Ja- 
cob Keesling, from Pa., afterward Wm. Fouts, on land now 
owned by Isaac iST. Seaney. Armstrong Grimes on land now 
owned by Eli Kilmer. Wm. Parsons, where James Watson 
resides. 

In the north part of the township. Fielding Gaar settled on 
a part of section 21, lately occupied by R. Rue, now owned 
by Justice Kroskopf. Wm. Williams settled in 1814, where 
Isaac Bulla resides. He was a maker of spinning wheels, 
and removed to Richmond ; was also a minister in the society 
of Friends. Asa Jeffers settled on land now owned by 
Alonzo Osborn and Daniel W. Shaffer. Adjoining this section 
on the south, James, William, and Robert Grimes owned the 
land now owned by John T. Williams. Daniel Hart, from 
iN". C, settled, in 1814, on the land now owned by Francis 
Hendricks. Jesse Davenport, before mentioned, in 1806, set- 
tled on section 22, adjoining Wayne. A part of his land is 
now owned by the heirs of George Grimes. Other parts of 
the section were owned or settled by Jeremiah Parker, Clark 
Williams, and Daniel Clark. Portions of the section are now 
owned by James McLain, Samuel S. Brown, Clayton Brown, 
Joseph Kokayne, Wm. Roberts, W. Elmer, and others. On 
the section adjoining, south, [27,] John McCombs, afterward 
John Ray, settled where now Wm. Ray resides. Jonathan 
Townsend, on the land now owned by Edward Timbcrlake. 



BOSTON TOWNSHIP. 153 

Jacob Keesling bought the south part of the section, now 
owned by Joseph M. Bulla, David Fouts's heirs, and Nathan 
Druley. 

In the north-east part of the township, [sec. 26,] Wni. 
Jones settled on the north half, now owned by Joseph M. 
Bulla, Wm. Feazel, andBenj. Brown. The south half, early 
owned by Jacob Keesling, now by Joseph M. and William 
Bulla, William Feazel, Henry H. Highly. Section 23, west 
half, first owners not remembered ; north quarter now owned 
chiefly by Andrew Gifibrd ; the south quarter by Jacob 
Shaii'er, James Watson, and Edward Scarce. The north-east 
quarter is owned by ITathan Druley. The south-east quar- 
ter, formerly owned by James Hartup and Samuel Watts, 
now by Wm. Wolf and Wm. Watson's heirs. Daniel Shaf- 
fer, from Virginia, came to the Whitewater country in 1809, 
and settled, in 1811, on section 24, on Ohio line, where he now 
resides, at the age of about 85 years. His wife died the 1st 
of January, 1867. On the quarter south, John Raper from 
Va., settled early ; land now owned by James W. Shaffer, and 
the heirs of Joseph Doran. Adam Zeek settled on the north- 
west quarter, which is now owned by his heirs, and David 
and Wm. Wolf. Henry Tinkle, on the quarter south, after- 
wards Benj. G. Moore, now owned by Harbin H. Moore. On 
the section south, [25,] John Hollett settled on land lately 
owned by Jacob Shaffer, now by Joseph Bosworth. Thomas 
Taylor, on the south-east quarter, where he now resides, at 
the age of 86 years. He first settled near the Falls of Elk- 
horn. 

In the south-east fart of the township, [sec. 36,] Joshua 
Benton settled on the quarter owned by David Fouts's heirs, 
on Ohio line. Jeremiah Girton on the quarter owned by 
Nathan Druley. On the section west, [35,] James Holman 
settled where Dennis Druley lives ; John Jordan, about 1810, 
south-east qr. ; sold out about 1813, to John Esteb, from Pa., 
and removed to Perry townshi}>, where he died ; land now 
owned by Wm. Esteb's heirs, Levi G. Druley, and Edward 
Ryan. Absalom Rambo, on the south-west quarter, now 
owned chiefly by Nathan Druley and Sylvester Girton. Jo- 
seph Cravens settled about 1818 at or near where Charles 



154 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

and Richard Allen own, on the corner section of the town- 
ship ; the north half of the section owned by Levi Druley. 
On a part of the section west, Thomas Wyatt, from Tenn., 
early, on land now owned by John Druley. lie was a Kev- 
olutionary soldier and pensioner, and died at a very advanced 
age. Isaac Conley, on the quarter adjoining the town, now 
owned by his son, John J. Conley, where he died in 1864. 
He had early settled a mile north-west of town, on a small 
farm, where he also carried on for a few years the tanning 
business. 

Wm. Holman settled on the south-east qr. of section 34, 
adjoining town, now owned by Levi Druley. North-east qr., 
owned lately by A. Lane, now by ISTathan Druley. John 
Miller, one of the first settlers on the south-west qr., where 
his son Wm. Miller lives. The north-west qr., land now 
owned by David Fouts's heirs; first settler not remembered. 
Thomas Ward, early on section 83, where Ira Starr lives. 
Thomas Young, where Peter Shidler now lives. John Brat- 
tan, from iST. C, where Levi Stanley lives. Sec. 3, south-west 
of town, Samuel Beck, from ]^. C, on the south-east qr., 
where Wm. Davenport lives. James Fisher, north-east qr., 
now owned by Wm. Seany and Oliver H. Fonts. Owen 
Seany, Sen., from 'N. C, about 1809, south-west qr., where 
he resided until his death, in 1831. Pleasant Seany lives on 
the farm. Owen Seany, Jun., on a part of north-west qr., 
where he died in March, 1871 ; land previously, though per- 
haps not first, owned by Thomas Cuppy. Section next west, 
[4,] Peter Mellender, 1 mile west from town ; land lately 
owned by Isaac Mellender, his son, now by Polly Mellender. 
John Rife, (not first,) on the land now owned by his son, Ja- 
cob Rife, a German Baptist [Dunker] preacher. Isaac Esteb, 
on the north-west corner of the section, now owned by his 
son Isaac M. Esteb's heirs. Benj. Jarvis, very early on the 
south-west qr., at or near where Zachariah Osborn lives. He 
died in 1862, aged 82 years. 

In the south-icest jJcirt ot^ the townshl-p, Joel Moore is said 
to have settled on the qr. now owned by Samuel Moore. 
His son John Moore and sons, Jacob and Alfred, own and 
live on the east half of the section north, [32.] Samuel 



BOSTON TOWNSHIP. 155 

Jobe, a Baptist preacher, on the Land now owned by Samuel 
Osborn's heirs. Lazarus Whitehead, in 1805, where now 
John Sedgwick lives; land on west line of the township. 
Isaac Beeson, probably, where his son Augustus now resides. 
The first Physician resident in the township is not remem- 
bered. Among those who have at diiierent times lived and. 
practiced here, were Drs. Stevens, Butler, Wheeler, Hiram 
Bull, David S. Evans, and Wm. H. Evans. Present prac- 
ticing physicians, John J. Eife and Wm. F. Miller. 

The first 3Ierchant is supposed to have been a McMaster. 
According to the recollection of early settlers, the following 
succeeded McMaster, verly nearly in the order named : James 
Iliff, Baxter & Dunham, Jacob W. Fisher & Wm. Fonts, Bull 

& Haines, Wm. & John Russey, Irvin. From 1839 to 

1845, the following are on record as having paid for store 
licenses : In 1839, Doughty & Widup, Joseph F. Chapman, 
Isaac Craig, until 1845, (perhaps later.) In 1844, Strattan & 
Burbank, John Strattan ; in 1844 and 1845, Harvey & McCul- 
lough, Aaron Druley. There have also been named, Samuel 
& LeRoy McWhinney, Hiram Bulla & Joseph Druley, Smith, 
Druley & John Deal, John Druley, John Steele, Jacob F. 
Rinehart, Robert Swishey & Frank Templeton, David Jenks. 
Present merchant, Jacob F. Rinehart. 

The following names of justices of the feace appear in a 
number of old dockets now in the office of J. F. Rinehart, Esq. 
The years in which their respective records commence are 
also given. Isaac Esteb, 1819; James P. Burgess, 1829; 
Abraham Cuppy, 1834; Joseph A. Simpson, Stephen Mc- 
Whinney, 1835; Isaac Mellender, 1839 ; Wm. Druley, 1841 ; 
Alfred Moore, 1851 ; John H. Stearns, 1854 ; James Esteb, 
1856; Jacob F. Rinehart, 1869. Present justices, Jacob F. 
Rinehart, James P. Burgess. 

The first Grist-mill in the county was built by Charles Hunt, 
in 1807, on the Elkhorn, about a mile above its mouth, now 
near the west line of Boston township. It was a tub mill, 
and a cheap one, called in those days "corn-cracker." He 
afterward built a new mill, which, after four or five years, 
was destroyed by fire. A steam saw-mill on the same site, 
is now owned by James and John Ensley. [Since the above 



156 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

was written, John Ensley has died.] Jesse Davenport built 
a grist-mill on the falls of Elkhorn creek, believed to have 
been the third one in the connty. A few years later he built 
a saw-mill at the same place. These mills are but a few rods 
above the present mills, on the Richmond and Boston turn- 
pike. There are atpresent a grist-mill and a saw-mill, called 
"Relief Mills," owned by Samuel S. Brown, Wm. A. Elmer, 
and John Wolf. A steam saw-mill was built in 1837, by 
Eliphalet Stanley, at Boston, and sold soon after to Jacob 
W. Fisher and Wm. Fouts, who sold to Smith Rader, and he 
to Irvin and others. James L. Harris, half a mile north of 
town, built a steam saw-mill, which is now owned by Wm. T. 
McCoy. There was for a time attached to it a run of burr 
stones for grinding corn. A lath-machine is now attached. 

There are at Boston two tile factories \ one owned by Sylves- 
ter Girton, the other by Wm. Hart. 

A sorghum mill was built in 1866, by John J. Conley, near 
town. It has the capacity to manufacture 100 gallons of 
syrup per day. During the season, which continues throngh- 
out the fall months, about 4,000 gallons are made. 

A Baptist Church was formed in 1806 or 1807, in what is 
now the west part of this township, composed chiefly of set- 
tlers on and near the Elkhorn creek, and is familiarly known 
as the "Elkhorn Church." It was the earliest church or2:au- 
ization in the county. The number of its members was 
small. Richard Rue, Lazarus Whitehead, Charles Hunt, and 
Isaac Esteb, and their wives, are believed to have been among 
its first members. Lazarus Whitehead was their pastor, and 
was the first minister with a charge in the county. Their 
meeting-house is near Elkhorn creek, about a mile above its 
mouth. Probably none of its first members are now living. 

The Friends, soon after the Baptists, formed a society, and 
built a log meeting-house about 2| miles north of Boston. 
The house had a stick and clay chimney, and was warmed by 
a charcoal fire in the center. Few persons living remember 
the names of their early members. Only two have been 
mentioned, as certain : John Clark and Jeremiah Parker. 

A Methodist Episcopal Church, in the north-west part of the 
township, Avas formed early, 1807 or 1808. Hugh Cull, who 



BOSTON TOWNSHIP. 157 

settled there about the time Rue aud Holman came, was a 
Methodist preacher. He early invited the few families in 
the neighborhood to come to his cabin, and preached to them. 
As soon as the itinerant ministers came within reach of him, 
he invited them to his home. They formed a class at his 
house, which was a regular preaching place for many years. 
This church still exists, and, it is believed, has been regularly 
supplied with preaching until the present time. 

A second Methodist Episcopal Church in the township was 
formed at the town of Boston. The date of its organization 
has not been ascertained. An old inhabitant, and one of the 
early members, names the following as having joined at the 
time, or very soon after the class was formed : Jacob Meek, 
Peter Mellender, Nicholas Druley, Samuel Druley, James 
Holman, Samuel Beck, Joseph (Graven, Andrew Jones, Absa- 
lom Kambo, John Esteb, James Esteb, and probably the 
wives of some or all of them. They built a frame meeting- 
house in or about the year 1838. As in some other places 
mentioned in our history, a separation was caused by anti- 
slavery agitation. The church was greatly enfeebled by the 
division — so much so, that for many years it could hardly be 
said to have an existence. Although it has recently been 
reorganized, its membership does not exceed about twenty- 
five in number. 

The Free Methodists organized a church some five or six 
years ago. Some of their early members were Ira Starr, 
Harbin H. Moore, John Druley, Wm. Miller, Emsley Daven- 
port. 

The Universalist Church was organized in July, 1869. In 
1868, they built a brick meeting-house jointly with the Free 
Masons, who occupy the upper story. 

The town of New Boston was laid out by James IlifF, Ste- 
phen McWhinney, Wm. Druley, Samuel Shinn, proprietors. 
The plat and survey were recorded August 30, 1832. 

Downey Lodge, No. 233, of Free and Accepted Masons, was 
organized under a charter granted May 25, 1858. Charter 
Members : JS'icholas Druley, W. M. ; John H. Stearns, S. W.; 
Joseph M. Bulla, J. W. ; Joseph Clengenpul, S. D.; Joseph T. 
Druley, J. W. ; Louis Pigg, Tyler ; J. M. Jones, Secretary. 



158 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Present Officers : Joliu I. Eife, W. M.; W. P. Druley, S. W. ; 
John Moss, J. W. ; Joseph S. Benhera, S. D. ; Erasmus Sto- 
ver, J. D.; Samuel Oler, Treasurer; Samuel I.Johnson, Secre- 
tary ; Charles Allen, Tyler. 

Rinehart Lodge, 310, Independent Order of Odd Felloius, was 
organized June 11, 1868. The charter was granted May 20, 
1868, on application of Jacob F. Kinehart, Henry Hawkins, 
Euos Geary, Philip Schneider, and Charles Corns. First Of- 
ficers : Jacob F. Kinehart, N. G. ; Oliver H. Toney, V. G. ; 
Samuel J. Johnson, Secretary ; Henry C. Fonts, Per. Secre- 
tary; Levi G. Druley, Treasurer. 

Biographical and Genealogical. 

Joseph M. Bulla, son of Thomas Buha, an early settler, was 
born where his father first settled, on the Elkhorti, in the south- 
east part of Wayne township. He was married to IS^ancy 
Wilson, and settled in the township of Boston, about five miles 
from Richmond, where he now resides. They had eleven chil- 
dren, three sons and eight daughters. Besides sundrj' trusts 
of minor importance, Mr. B. held, from 1842 to 1848, the 
office of county commissioner, and was soon alter elected a rep- 
resentative of the county in the state legislature. 

James P. Burgess came to this county about the year 1820. 
He was married in 1821, and settled on the place where he 
now resides, in the north-west part of the township, about two 
miles and a half south from llichmond. Mr. Burgess and his 
wife are both still living. In March, 1871, the fiftieth an- 
niversary of his marriage was celebrated by the modern popu- 
lar festival, "golden wedding," at which, among the numerous 
guests, there were present five persons who attended the mar- 
riage in 1821. One of these was Lewis Burk, of Richmond, 
who then served at the table as carver, and who performed a 
similar service on the late occasion. Mr. Burgess, soon after 
his settlement, united with the Methodist Episcopal church in 
his neighborhood, and has ever since been one of its most ac- 
tive members and liberal supporters. He has been several 
times elected a justice of the peace, which oflice he now holds. 

CoNLEY, John J., son of Isaac Conle}'', was born in what is 
now Boston township, February 23, 1812. After his majority 



BOSTON TOWNSHIP. 159 

he worked as carpenter and joiner and cabinet-maker about 
ten years. In 1841, he removed to Richmond, where he also, 
for several years, carried on the manufacturing of shoe pegs, and 
subsequently the horticultural business for eleven years. In 
1864, he bought his father's farm at Boston, on which he still 
resides. He has been twice married; first, to Isabella Grimes; 
secondly, to Martha Curry, of Eaton, 0.; by each of whom he 
had two sons and two daughters: all but one daughter are liv- 
ing. The following are married: Robert G., who was in the 
late war three 3'ears; was in thirteen battles; was captured in 
the battle of the Wilderness; confined in Andersonville prison 
seven months; paroled and sent home, and discharged January 
18, 1865. He married Ella Benton, and is a hardware mer- 
chant in Richmond, in the firm of G. W. Benton & Co. Mary, 
who married James Dean, and resides near Bloomingsport, 
Ind. Margaret, who married John Short, and lives in Wayne 
township. 

Hugh Cull, who has been mentioned as one of the earliest 
settlers in the county, was born of Roman Catholic parents, in 
Havre de Grace, Maryland, October, 1759. He removed, when 
four years of age, with his father, to Pennsylvania, and thence, 
in 1777, to Kentucky, near where the cit}- of Lexington now 
stands. He was married in 1785, in Henry county, to Rachel 
Meek, then in hef sixteenth year ; and in 1805 removed to the 
place where he died, now in Boston township, about five miles 
below Richmond, near the Elkhorn. He was a Methodist 
local preacher, and actively engaged for years in preaching the 
gospel before traveling preachers had found their way into the 
new settlements. He was a member of the convention which 
framed the first constitution of the state, and which then met 
at Corydon. His biographer. Rev. Wm. C. Smith, dates his 
death August 31, 1862, and adds, "aged 104 years and 10 
months." If, however, he was born and died at the dates given, 
he would have been but 102 years and ten months. As he is 
generally said to have been 105 years, Mr. Smith probably 
erred in giving the year of his birth or that of his death. 

Nicholas Druley, from North Carolina, in 1812, settled in 
Wayne county a mile and a half south of the town of Boston, 
now in Union county. He had nine children who attained to 



160 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

the age of majority, and were married. 1. Lethe was married 
to Greenup Holman, and removed to Grant county, where she 
now resides. 2. Levi, to Agnes Sedgwick, and lives in the 
township. 3. Elizabeth, to Leonard Templeton. 4. Aaron, 
to Martha, daughter of Stephen G. Hunt, son of Charles 
Hunt, Sen. 5. Dennis, first to Nancy Jane Grimes, and 
after her death to Mary Jane "Watson. 6. John, to Nancy, 
daughter of Stephen G. Hunt. 7. Martha, to Levi Wyatt, 
now in Preble county, Ohio. 8. Nicholas, to Elizabeth Nut- 
ter, (?) and lives in Harrison, Union county. 9. Joseph, to 
Elizabeth Price, and resides in Richmond. Several of the sons 
of Nicholas Druley, Sen., are large landholders. Levi and 
Nicholas own nearly equal quantities, about 700 acres each. 

Abram Gaar was born in Hanover couut}^ Virginia, Feb- 
ruary 28, 1769, and in 1805 removed to Kentucky. In 1807, 
he came to this county, and settled about four miles and a 
half south of Richmond, in the north-west part of the present 
township of Boston, where his son Larkin Gaar now resides. 
He lived on the farm on which he first settled until his death, 
August 20, 186L He married in Virginia, and had eight chil- 
dren : Jonas, who resides in Richmond ; [Sk.] Fielding, who 
died in Utah ; Larkin, who lives on the homestead ; Abel, who 
resides at Berrien, Michigan ; Fanny, wife of Wm. Lamb who 
died in Iowa, where she resides; Rosa, wife of John In- 
gels who died at Milton, where she resides with her son; 
Martha, who married Jeptha Turner; Eliza Jane, who married 
Thomas Henderson. 

Thomas Young, a native of Virginia, after a residence of 
several years in Ohio, settled in this county in 1833, on the 
farm on which Jacob Shidler now resides, about a mile and a 
half west from the town of Boston. He had six children, four 
sons and two daughters; of whom only two sons, John F. and 
Thomas N., settled in this county. John F. married a daugh- 
ter of Nathaniel McClure, Jun., of "Wayne township, and after 

her death, , of Ohio, also deceased. He resides in 

Richmond. Thomas N. also resides in Richmond. [Sk.] 










V J^' 



,.>A^ 



Ai^AKl^M ®Am 



CENTER TOWNSHIP. 161 



CENTEE TOWNSHIP. 

This township was formed in August, 1817, and comprises 
an area of about 49 miles. It is 9 miles in length, north and 
south. Its average breadth is less than b^ miles, being on the 
north line 3J miles, and on the south about 6f miles. It is 
watered, principally, by Poland's Fork and its branches. The 
main branch of the stream enters the township near the north- 
east corner, and passes through it to the south-west corner. It 
derives its name frornDaJiiel Noland, the first settler in its val- 
ley, about four miles south-west from Centerville, now in the 
township of Washington. 

Among the earliest settlers in the township were those who 
first settled on this stream. They were the following: Isaac 
Julian, on the laud now owned by Oliver H. Brumfield, IJ 
miles south-west of Centerville. Mr. Julian's cabin was, in 
the time of the Indian alarms, altered to a block-house. In 
this house, which stood a little below Ephraim Merritt's pres- 
ent residence, his first three children were born. Nathan 
Overman settled near and west of town, the land now owned 
by Wm. S. T. Morton. Henry Bryan, Wm. Hosier, Robert 
Culbertson, Greenburg Cornelius, some of the Kings, and 
others, also settled in this valley. 

Ascending the valley of the creek, on the loest side from the 
south-w^est corner of the township, were the following, not all 
of whom, however, were among the earliest settlers in the 
township : David J. Woods, who built a grist-mill and a saw- 
mill. A saw-mill is still continued there by Robert Delap. 

James , on the land now owned by S. Nefi:'. Thomas 

McCoy, from Kentucky, who had settled, with Ilolman and 
others, in 1805, a few miles south of Richmond, and who re- 
moved, in 1813, to this township, where his sons John and 
Morgan now reside. Joseph W. Jackson, now next north, 
was an early settler, and near there, Jacob Hyers, who died in 
Madison county. Wm. Crawford, where now Richard G. 



162 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Charman lives. Crawford also manufactured whisky on a 
small scale, and was, probably, the lirst distiller in the county. 
Caleb Jackson, where his son Caleb B. Jackson now resides. 
Greenbury Cornelius, in 1811, on the land belonging to the 
present county asylum. Wm. Harve}^ on the quarter east of 
the above. John Harvey, from North Carolina, on land now 
owned by the heirs of John P. Harvey. Robert Commons, 
from Virginia, settled, in 1813, where he died December 19, 
1837, aged 90 years; the place now owned by John Myers. 
James Townsend, from South Carolina, on land now owned 
by Melinda King. Joseph Hohnan, on the land now owned 
by Wm. Q. Elliott. Axium Elliott, from North Carolina, 
three miles north from Centerville; land now owned by Mark 
Elliott's heirs. Robert Galbraith, where Joseph A. Commons 
resides, four miles north from town. John Copeland, first, 
afterward Daniel King, from Kentucky, about 1816, near 
where he now lives. His son Levi now lives on the home- 
stead. Robert Culbertson, from Kentucky, in 1815, on land 
lately owned by Leonard Wolfert, now by Lorenzo D. King. 
He lives with his son William, four miles north of Centerville. 
Edward Benbo, on the land now owned by theteirs of Jack- 
son Culbertson. Walter Roberts, from South Carolina, sou of 
Thomas Roberts, an early settler near Richmond, settled, in 
1816, where he now lives. John Stigleman, where his son 
Henry now resides. Joseph Overman, from North Carolina, 
about 1813, where he still resides, in the north-east part of the 
township. Michael Harvey, from North Carolina, in the 

north-east part of the township, where his sons reside. 

Whitson, about 1812, where his sou John resides. John El- 
wood, from Delaware, where his son Levi lately lived. 

Descending on the east side of the stream, we mention Jacob 
Griffin, from North Carohua, about 1813, who settled two 
miles north from town, on land now owned by his son Joshua 
and Walter G. Stevens. John Maxwell, from Tennessee, a 
blacksmith and farmer, about 1814, where his son John M. 
lately resided; the land since sold to James Dunbar, from 
Abington in 1844, who died in 1869, aged 48, and now owned 
by his heirs. John King, from Kentucky, entered, about 
1812, the land since owned by his son Joseph, now by Joseph's 



CENTER TOWNSHIP. 163 

heirs. Joseph Cook settled on land now owned by James 
liiissell. Jehu Wickersham, in 1816, on land now owned by 
Oliver T. Jones [not where O. T. J. resides]. John Garrett, 
where Joseph J. King resides. Wm. Hosier, from North Car- 
olina, in 1811, on the quarter section now owned and occupied 
by David Commons, and on which he lives. Robert Harvey, 
from North Carolina, on the adjoining quarter north, also now 
owned by David Commons. Wm. Sumner, from Virginia, 
near town, sold to John King, now owned by Jackson King, 
his youngest son. His other sons were James W. D., Wm. S., 
Joseph, and Presley. All settled in the township, west and 
north-west of the town. Wm. Sumner also owned the land 
on which Centerville stands. Israel Elliott settled on the land 
lately owned by JSTorris Jones, near town. James Junkius, 
afterward Elisha King, on the land now owned by George 
Houck. Robert Black, on land now owned by his widow and 
sons. Henry Bryan, a native of Delaware, removed from 
Pennsylvania, in 1811, to the farm on which he died, now 
owned by the heirs of Wm. Gentry, near the south-west cor- 
ner of the township. He was the first county surveyor. 

In the south part of the township, Isaac Williams settled on 
land afterward owned by Samuel ]SIcConnaha, now by Thomas 
McConnaha, his son. David Galbraith and his son John, 
where Jacob Wagoner lived ; land now owned by Joshua Eli- 
ason. Nathaniel Bell, from Kentucky, one mile south of 
town, where Martin U. Eliason lives. Daniel Crow, a native 
of North Carolina, two miles south from town, where he still 
resides, his youngest son, Jacob, Uving with him. His other 
sons are, Stephen, in Washington township ; Ashford and Ja- 
cob, on the homestead ; Nelson, in Boston township. 

John Smith, son of John Smith, an fearly proprietor of Rich- 
mond, settled one and a half miles south-east from town, on 
land afterward owned by Paul Frazier, now by his heirs. 
Wm. Bundy settled where, at the age of 84 years, he still 
lives with his son-in-law, Amos Haines. Peter and Zachary 
Dicks, from North Carolina, about 1812, three miles south- 
east from town on land now owned by their heirs. Beale 
Butler, in the south-east part of the township; the land now 
the property of Isam Smelser and Stephen Farlow. Butler 



104 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

was a judge and a county commissioner. John Jones, from 
Virginia, three miles south from town, where he still lives, at 
the age of 82 years. He was several times elected to the legis- 
lature, and is a highly respected citizen. 

In the east imrt of the township, John C. Kibbey, from New 
Jersey, settled at Salisbury, and owned considerable land there, 
a part of which is now owned by John P. Voss. Jeremy 
Mansur, from Massachusetts, settled at Salisbury. He was a 
blacksmith, and famed as an ax-maker; was afterward a 
farmer. Parts of the farm are now owned by Joseph C. Rat- 
lift" and Thomas Wyatt. Joseph Kera, early on section 15, 
the section now owned by Joseph C. Ratliff", James Forkner, 
T. & J. Miller. Kem resides in Richmond. Isaac Miller set- 
tled on the east line of the township, on lands on and near 
which he and his sons, A. J., James A., L. D., David, and 
Oliver reside. Richard Pedrick, (probably not the first,) where 
are now Thomas and J. Roberts. James E. Bryant, on land 
early owned by Thomas Aired. Viuuedge Russell and Rich- 
ard Pedrick, on the section [10] on which John M. Eliason 
and others reside. Wm. Culbertson, on land first improved by 
George Vinnedge. Thomas Culbertson and Richard Cheese- 
man, early, where Presley, Caleb W., and Lorenzo D. King 
reside, on and near N'oland's Fork. Joseph Overman, where 
he still lives, and his son Emsley. Wm. Tbornburg, from 
Virginia, in 1810, to Wayne, and thence in 1816 to Center, 
near the north line, and near where his son Walter resides. 
He died near Indianapolis in 1841, aged 64. 

In the west part of the township, Jacob Brooks, a native of 
Virginia, from Ohio in 1827, settled, where he lately lived, on 
the township line; now lives on section 22, north side of the 

National road. ^^Conover, also on the west line; land 

now owned by Wm. Couover, first settled by John Woodward. 
Charles Canaday, early, where David B. Beeson resides. 
James Martin, from North Carolina, where his son James B. 
resides. Samuel Parker, where Henry Gates resides. Jehu 
Wickcrsham, (not the Jehu Wickersham before mentioned,) 
settled where Eli Cook lives. Philip Kitterman, (not the first 
settler,) where his heirs reside. Ezekiel Commons, in 1813 or 
1814, where James Black resides. Daniel Stone, afterward 



CENTER TOWNSHIP. 165 

James 'Neai, a farmer, blacksmith, and innkeeper, on the land 
now owned b}^ J. & C. Starr. John Hill, from North Caro- 
lina, about 1814, on the land now owned by Wm. Norman's 
heirs. Peter Edwards, from North Carolina, on land now 
owned by Jesse and Stephen Horney. Francis Coffin, from 
North Carolina, on section 11, the land now owned chiefly by 
Cyrus, Dorelis, and Hiram Hufi'. John King, from Kentucky, 
settled, in 1828, where widow Sarah King lives. He died in 
1859, aged 75. Mark Elliott came from North Carolina, with 
his father, Exum Elliott, and settled in the north-west part of 
the township, near where he died in 1858, aged 44, on the 
place where his widow lives. His son William, who married 
Rebecca, daughter of Joseph Jackson, now lives near his 
mother. Sarah E., daughter of Mark Elliott, married Marion 
J. Barr. 

Benj. Maudlin, from North Carolina, in 1807, to Wayne 
township, and in 1813 to Center, two and a half miles north of 
Centerville; removed to Michigan about 1835, where he died. 
His son John married Rebecca Elliott, and lives three miles 
north-west from town. Mark, his son, resides two miles north- 
west from town. John W. Tindale, from Ohio, in 1840, settled 
in Green, and in 1854, where he now resides, in the north part 
of Center. Joseph Palmer, from Virginia, in 1829, settled south 
of Centerville ; his son Daniel now lives in Center, one and a 
half miles west of Dover. 

James Thompson, a native of New Jersey, removed from 
Ohio to the place now occupied by his son-in-law, Wm. Frame. 
He died in 1869, aged 76 years. His son William lives on 
land adjoining on the west. Lewis Forkner, from North Car- 
olina, settled in Centerville in 1817, and died in 1824. His 
son James is a merchant in Centerville. 

The first Saw-mill in the township was built by Asa Provo, 
about the year 1817, on Noland's Fork, three miles north of 
Centerville. Another, about a mile below, by John Cope- 
land, about the same time. Robert Harvey, another, on the 
same stream, one and a half miles north-west from town, on 
the present site of the mills of David Commons. Axum 
White built a saw-mill above Harvey's, afterward owned by 
Norris Jones, since rebuilt by Daniel Shank; no mill is now 



166 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

rniiniiig tliere. Another was built by ISTathan Overman, about 
1827, one mile west of town; and another below that, by 
J^atlian HoUingswortb, where one is still running. A steam 
saw-mill was built in 1868, in the east part of the town, by 
Lym.an & Haines. 

The first Grist-mill [corn-cracker] was built about 1816, by 
•Tames Crawford, one mile south-west of town. It was after- 
ward owned by Jacob Wolf, who run it ten or fifteen years, 
and sold it to Jacob Crull, Jun., who rebuilt it, and sold it to 
Nathan Ilollingsworth, who also improved it, and run it about 
twenty years ; and after passing through the hands of several 
owners, it came into the possession of its present proprietors, 

Clark and John P. Smith. Robert Harvey built a cheap 

mill near his saw-mill, sold it to David Commons, who built 
in its place a first-class flouring-mill, which he thoroughly 
repaired in 1869. David J. Woods built a grist-mill and a 
saw-mill in the south-west corner of the township. A saw- 
mill is continued there by Robert Delap. A steam flouring- 
mill was built about ten years ago by Wm. Piatt, and fell 
into the hands of Norris Jones, who sold it to John Latshaw. 
It was afterward destroyed by fire. Another was built in its 
place, but is not running at present. 

A Carding-machine was built by I^athan Overman, one mile 
west of Centerville, believed to have been the onlj^ one ever 
in the township. 

Among the earl}' Blacksmiths — perhaps the first in the town- 
ship — was John Maxwell, about two miles north of towji. 
Jeremy Maiisur, the famed ax-maker, settled in Salisbury. 
There were few of the old settlers who were not supplied by 
him with that indispensable article, of a superior quality. 

A Tannery, supposed to have been the first in the township, 
was established by Robert Galbraith, three miles north from 
Centerville. John Lewis built one in town about 1818. 

Town of Centerville. 

This is the oldest town in the county of Waj'ue. The 

ground was a donation from Israel Elliott and Ethan A. 

Stone, of Cincinnati. It was laid out by the trustees, Isaac 

Julian, Joseph Ilolman, and AYm. Harvey. The survey, 



CENTER TOWNSHIP. 167 

made hj Henry Biyan, is dated October 20, 1814, and certi- 
fied by the trustees, Jan. 2, 1815. Additions were made to 
the plat, as follows : By Joseph Evans, March, 1818 ; by Lot 
Pugh, Micajah T. "Williams, and Arthur Henrie, June 1, 1818; 
by Wm. Sumner, Jan. 21, 1819; by Wm. M. Doughty and 
Wm. Elliott, Dec. 14, 1830; by Israel Abrahams, Dec, 1833. 
The cemetery was laid out by the trustees in May, 1849. 
Certain lots were specially appropriated for the burial of col- 
ored people. 

The first Innkeeper in Centerville is said to have been 
Rachel jSTeal. Other early keepers of public houses were 
Wm. Vaugban, Levi M. Jones, and Samuel Hannah. The 
present one is T. L. Rowan, proprietor of the American 
House. He is a son of Henry Rowan, who, since 1835, was 
most of the time a resident of Centerville, until his death, in 
1869. 

The first Blacksmith in Centerville is supposed to have been 
Isaac Forkner. Lewis Burk, now of Richmond, and Frederic 
Dillon, came soon after. 

Edward Benbo, Daniel Lantz, and Wm. Hill were early 
Wagon-makers. The present is John Lantz. Carriage-maker, 
John Houck. 

Jacob ^. Booker was probably the first J latter. George 
Troxell and Wm. Widup also were early hatters. There 
was in those days in almost every hamlet a hatter, who sup- 
plied the inhabitants as generally with hats of his own man- 
ufacture as the cooper, or the wagon-maker, or the cabinet- 
maker did with his fabrics. Few hats were seen in country 
stores except such as had been taken of the village hatter in 
exchange for store goods. Men's and boys' hats for common 
wear were made of wool. For " Sunday wear," the wool 
bodies were covered with fur, and resembled the silk hats of 
the present time. 

Early Cabinet-makers were Hiatt, Wm. L. Reynolds, 

Hiram E. Hurlbut. 

Martin Hornish and John Chapman were, perhaps, the first 
Shoemakers. Those at present engaged in the making and 
sale of boots and shoes in this town, are Alfred Lashly, Scott 
& Strayer, James Kirk. 



168 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

The first Tailor was Charles F. Eeed, and after him were 
John E, Dunham, Matthew W. Jack, Wm. B. Hornish. 

Early Carpenters were Jesse AVilletts, Jacob Hornish. 

The first Merchant in Centerville who kept a considerable 
stock and general assortment of goods, is said to have been 
Samuel P. Booker. He had, however, been preceded by 
Lawrence H. Brannon and Caleb Lewis, in partnership, with a 
small lot, to supply the more pressing needs of the early in- 
habitants. Next to Booker was James Blair, in 1823, and soon 
after, Israel Abrahams, from Washington township, in which 
he had kept the first store, about three miles east of Milton. 
Among those who came within a few years afterward were 
Isaac Burbank, about 1824, Ilichard Cheesemau, Lot Bloom- 
field, Thomas Commons, and Jesse Williams. 'The follow- 
ing named persons are known to have traded here in the 
years mentioned, some of them, perhaps, earlier as well as 
later : In 1838, Myers Seaton, Snyder & Adams, Jacob Fisher, 
A. W. Bay & Co. In 1839, Holman & Bay, Hannah & New- 
man. In 1840, J. & H. Purviance & Co., Isaac Burbank. In 
1841, Elmer & Forkner, Wm. B. Hornish, Richard II. Swain. 
In 1844, Wm. Arnold. Present merchants : Dry Goods — 
Isaac Burbank, James Forkner, Wm. S. T. Morton, John B. 
Yanaernam, Samuel C. Doughty. Grocers — Henry C. Lee- 
son, C. Failor & Co., Michael L. Hornish, Bowers, 

Fletcher Medaris. Druggists — Pritchett & Dickey, John E. 
Pugh. 

The first Physician residing in Centerville was David F. 
Sacket, from Salisbury, where he had also served the county 
as recorder. Next came Dr. Ira Pier, after whom, Drs. John 
C. Cruise, Wm. Pugh, Isaac V. Dorsey, John Pritchett, and 
others. Present physicians — John Pritchett, Wm. Dickey, 
Wm. F. King, Calvin Wood, John Cleveland. 

The first Lawyer is supposed to have been Bethuel Morris, 
from Virginia, in 1818 or 1819. He removed to Indianapo- 
lis ; was for many years a circuit judge, and the president of 
a bank. He died there at an advanced age. 

James Rariden commenced practice in Centerville about 
the year 1820, and continued it there about fifteen years. 
Cyrus Finch, from about 1824, and died there about 1828. 



CENTER TOWNSHIP. 169 

Martin M. Ray came in 1827; was a good lawyer, removed 
to Indianapolis, where lie died. John S. Kewman com- 
menced practice in 1828; removed to Indianapolis in 1860, 
where he now resides. John B. Stitt practiced here several 
years, removed west, and died about a year ago. 

Charles 11. Test came to Centerville in 1838 ; now resides 
at Indianapolis. Jacob B. Julian commenced in 1839. 
George "W. Julian was admitted in 1841. Jesse P. Siddall 
commenced practice at Centerville in 1842 or 1843, and was 
for many years a law partner of John S. Newman. Michael 
Wilson commenced practice here in 1842. Thomas Means 
in 1843. Present practicing lawyers — Jacob B. Julian, Mi- 
chael Wilson, Wm. A. Peele, John F. Julian, Thomas J. 

Study, S. C. Whitesell, John L. Rupe, Henry C. Fox, 

Walker.' 

The First National Bank of Centerville was established in 
1863. Its stockholders were Jacob B. Julian, Oliver T. 
Jones, Joseph W. Jackson, David Commons, Joshua Elia- 
son, Jesse Cates, Jeremiah W. Swafford, Wm. Culbertson, 
Alexander Cheeseman, Jos. C. RatliiF, PhiHp Jenkins, James 
Forkner, George W. Julian, and others. Oliver T. Jones was 
chosen President; Benj. L. Martin, Cashier. The latter de- 
clined, and J. P. Southard was elected. After a few months, 
Jacob B. Julian was elected President, and Oliver T. Jones, 
Cashier. Since then no change has been made in its officers. 
Its capital is $100,000. 

The Machine Shop ayid Saw-mill in Centerville was built by 
Wharton Lyman, Norris Jones, and others, about the year 
185-. It is now owned by Fulghum. 

The Engine House and Town Hall building was erected in 
1858, by Norris Jones, who also built the Odd Fellows' build- 
ing the same year. Perhaps no man has done more to im- 
prove the place than Mr. Jones. 

The history of Newspapers published at Centerville, as 
given in preceding pages, was condensed from a sketch in 
the True Repuhlican of Nov. 12, 1863, and terminated with 
the discontinuance of the Wayne County Chronicle in 1864, 
and the removal of the press and types to Cambridge. Since 
the sheets containing that history passed through the press, 



170 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

the following supplement has been received, which is not in- 
approi^riately inserted in this place : 

In 1866, John and James Bromagem commenced The 
Union in Centerville, and published it about one year. In 

1869, Charles W. Stevens established The JRepublican, and 
continued its publication about six months. And the first of 
July, 1871, R.J. Strickland revived the Wayne County Chron- 
icle, which is still published by him at Centerville. 

The present Public School-house was built in pursuance of an 
act of the legislature, which authorized the establishment of 
a County Seminary in each county, the cost of the building to 
be paid from the fines collected therein. In 1827 or 1828, 
the west wing was built ; in 1841 or 1842, the east wing ; 
and about the year 1851, the main building. In pursuance 
of a law under the new constitution, the county seminary 
buildings throughout the state were sold, and the proceeds 
put into the school fund. In 1853, the buildings were 
bought by the Methodists, who established a school under 
the name of Whitewater College, which was kept up until 

1870, when the building was sold to the school trustees, and 
is now the public school-house. The present principal of 
the school is Edgar A. Brown. 

The first Religious Society in the township was that of the 
Friends, who, in 1815, organized the West Grove meeting, 
about 3 miles north-west from Centerville, and built a log 
meeting-house. The society, at its organization, was com- 
posed of the families of Robert Commons, Wm. Hastings, 
James Towusend, Benj. Maudlin, Jacob Grifiin, Wm. Harvey, 
Axum Elliott, Obed Barnard, and perhaps Edward Benbo. 
It was named by Robert Commons, West Grove, that being 
the name of the place where he had resided in Pennsylvania. 
They met in the woods at the place selected for the meeting- 
house. The following named persons were also early mem- 
bers, some of them, perhaps, at the time of the organization : 
Abraham and Joseph Cook, Jehu Wickersham, John Max- 
well, John Brumfield, John Copeland, John Harvey, Robert 
Harvey, Charles Canaday, George Russell, Nathan Overman. 
Among their early preachers were Jesse Bond, Hannah 
Baldwin, and Daniel Williams, who is still living in Clay. 
This meeting has been continued until the present time. 



CENTER TOWNSHIP. 171 

A Baptist Church is said to have been formed early about 
3 miles north of Centerville. Early members were Isaac 
Cotton, Samnel Taylor, preachers ; John Stigleman, Joshua 
Eliason, Richard Cheeseman, Isaac Voorhees, and others. It 
long since ceased to exist. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church of Centerville was formed 
in 1822. In the absence of early records of the society, re- 
course could be had only to the memory of its early mem- 
bers, a few of whom are still living. Among the members 
who joined at or near the year of its organization, were 
Israel Abrahams, Elisha King, Edward K. Hart, and their 
wives, Mrs. Hart, Samuel King, Margaret Ringo, John Scott 
and wife. Within a few years after, Mrs. Therese Finch, Al- 
fred Carter and Ephraim J. Merritt and their wives, Mary 
Merritt, mother of Ephraim, and Elizabeth Hart. The first 
preachers are said to have been Russell Bigelow, George 
Gatch, John Strange, and James Havens. Their first meet- 
ings were held in the dwelling of the late Israel Abrahams, 
nearly opposite the Bank. In 1828, they built a frame meet- 
ing-house north of the present jail. Their brick house was 
built in 1842. 

A Methodist Episcopal Church was formed some twenty-five 
or more years ago, about 3| miles north of Centerville, at 
the present Centerville Crossing, on the railroad. The par- 
ticulars of its history have not been obtained. There is near 
it a camp ground, on which meetings have been held for many 
successive years. 

The Cumberland Presbyterian Church was organized in De- 
cember, 1S42, Rev. Le Roy Woods present and ofliciating. 
Members uniting were John B. Stitt, James Woods, Eliza A. 
Bolander, Sarah Garthwaite, James II. and Susan Hudson, 
Henry Brown, A. F. Dunham, Francis Smith, E. C. Seaton, 
Mary Stitt. A little later, Elizabeth Burbank, Margaret 
Meredith, Wm. B. and Charlotte Hornish, David and Sarah 
Dinwiddle, Wm. and Martha McCord, Adam and Eve Trum- 
bull. For about a year the church had only occasional serv- 
ice, which was held in the Methodist house. In 1849, their 
present house of worship was built, under the superintend- 



172 HISTORY OF AVAYNE COUNTY. 

ence of E. McCord, Wm. McCord, Adam Trumbull, David 
Dinwiddle, Wm, Bolander, trustees. Le Roy Woods was 
tlieir minister for several years, and was succeeded by 
Elam McCord. Rev. Felix G. Black became their minister 
in 1854; Charles Bond, March, 1866; Henry D. Onyett, the 
present pastor, April, 1867. Present elders — Wm. McCord, 
Adam Trumbull, ISTorris Jones. A Sabbath-school is con- 
nected with the church, superintended by the pastor. 

The Christian Church was organized about the year 1832. 
A Baptist church had existed as early, probably, as 1820, 
among whose members were Jesse Thomas, Henry Shoe- 
maker, and others, and had commenced the building of a 
house of worship in the north part of the town. On the organ- 
ization of the Christian church, the Baptists gave up theirs, 
and most of them joined the Christians, who proceeded to 
finish the house, which they still occupy. Their minister at 
that time was Daniel Winder. They have since then been 

served by Van Buskirk, Samuel K. Hoshour, and others. 

Among their early members were Joshua Eliason, Jesse 
Thomas, Jehiel Lampson, Judith King, John Winder. 

The Presbyterian Church of Centerville wa* organized April 
14, 1866. Pi'esent, Rev. James A. McKee, moderator, and Rev. 
L. W. Chapman; A. Samson, clerk. Members — John Mc- 
Farland and Ann, his wife, Wharton Lyman and Ann M., 
his wife, Caroline Dickey, Jane Rowan, Kate Johnson, 
John M. Coyner, elder, and Mary W.,his wife, Louisa A. Cun- 
ningham, Jane Doughty, Samuel Wilson, and Mary, his wife, 
M. Wilson, Elizabeth Young, Elizabeth Heuston. John 
McFarland and John M. Coyner were chosen ciders ; Whar- 
ton Lyman, deacon. Services were on this occasion held in 
Snider Hall. 

In May, 1866, Rev. Faunt Le Roy Senour was called as 
pastor of the church, and a Sabbath-school was organized; 

John M. Coyner chosen superintendent ; Coggshall, 

assistant superintendent; S. A. Wilson, secretary. In June, 
Snider Hall was rented for a place of worship for one year. 
The trustees of the society were John McFarland, F. V. Sni- 
der, Nimrod Johnson, Thomas Heuston, and the minister, 
who is a trustee, ex-officio. In 1869, T. J . was elected in 



CENTER TOWNSHIP. 173 

the place of Judge Johnson, deceased. In 1868, their brick 
church edifice was built. In October, 1867, Samuel Potter 
and John Smith were chosen elders. Mr. Senour, after a 
pastorate of two years, was succeeded by Rev. S. S. Potter, for 
about two years ; and in May, 1870, Rev. Eben Muse, the pres- 
ent minister, commenced his labors. 

Hosier Lodge, No. 23, 1. 0. O. F., was organized August 15, 
1845. Its charter members were Francis King, Daniel Lantz, 
Lazarus Koble, Israel Hannah, Enoch P. Justice, Milton Hiatt, 
Jason Ham. Its present officers are John Pritchett, N. G. ; 
Henry D. Onyett, V. G. ; Henry B. Leeson, Rec. Sec. ; Adam 
Trumbull, Per. Sec; Jonathan R. Whitacre, Treas. 

Hiram Lodge, No. 42, (Masonic,) was organized May, 1847. 
Its charter members are not now known. Its officers were 
Francis King, W. M. ; Samuel Boyd, S. W. ; Martin M. Ray, 
J. W. ; John Pritchett, Sec. 

This lodge was reorganized June 16, 1870, and is now 
Hiram Lodge, No. 417. Its officers are Joseph C. RatlifiF, W. 
M. ; Wm. Dickey, S. W. ; Ehhu M. Parker, J. W. ; John 
Pritchett, Sec. ; Wm. A. Chance, Treas. Its charter members 
were Joseph C. Ratliff, Wm. Dickey, Elihu M. Parker, 
Calvin J. Woods, Morgan McCoy, John F. Julian, John F. 
Kibbey, John Pritchett. 

Biographical and Genealogical. 

Lot Bloomfield, a lawyer, commenced practice in Center- 
ville in 1820. He was a good scholar, well read in general 
literature, and a man of fine mind, but was unsuccessful at the 
bar, withdrew from practice in a few years, and engaged in 
mercantile pursuits, in which he was very successful. He died 
many years ago in Indianapolis. 

Samuel P. Booker, a native of Winchester, Virginia, was, 
as has been stated, one of the first merchants in Centerville, 
where he commenced business in 1818 or 1819. He is rep- 
resented as a man of tine personal appearance, of pleasing 
manners, and a shrewd business man. He was successful in 
business, dying the wealthiest man of his day in the county. 
He died July 19, 1823, the day on which he was 44 years of 



174 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

age. His funeral was largely attended, being the first Masonic 
burial in the county; Joseph Holman officiating. 

Henry Bryan was born on the Brandy wine, near Wilming- 
ton, Delaware. When young, he removed with his parents to 
Beaver county, Pennsylvania; and thence he removed in 1811 
to the farm on which he died, two miles south-west of Center- 
ville. He was a high-toned gentleman, a fine scholar, and 
held the office of county surveyor, from its creation to the 
time of his death, in the spring of 1835. His widow yet sur- 
vives. 

Stephen Comer, from North Carolina, settled, first, two 
miles and a half north-east from Richmond, and soon after in 
Center, near Dover. During the Indian troubles, he fl.ed to the 
vicinity of Richmond, and returned to his farm after the paci- 
fication of the Indians, where he died in 1850, and where his 
son William resides. His children were John, William, Joseph, 
James, Rebecca, Stephen, and Mary. John married Elizabeth 
C. Teagle in 1823, and lived in Green, about a mile from 
Dover, where he died about the year 1838. His children are 
Mary Ann; William, living in Richmond; Joseph, manufac- 
turer of cutlery, one mile north of Richmond; John, who re- 
sides in Green ; and Elizabeth. 

Robert Commons was born in Ireland in 1748, and removed 
in infancy with his father's family to Chester county, Pennsyl- 
vania. He was married to Ruth Hayes, and removed to West- 
ern Virginia in 1792, and thence, in 1812, to this township, a 
mile and a half north-west from Centerville, where he resided 
until his death, December 19, 1837, aged 89 years. He had 
nine children: 1. Lydia, who married Adam Davis in Vir- 
ginia; removed to North Carolina, and thence, in 1811, to 
Washington county, Indiana, and finally to Mercer county, 
lUinois. 2. Phebe, who married Jesse Bond. [Sk.] 3. Isaac^ 
who came to Whitewater in 1807; married Mary, daughter of 
John Townsend, and in 1810 settled seven miles north of Rich- 
mond, now in Franklin township. His children were Jonathan, 
who married a Miss Moore, and died near his father's. Han- 
nah, wife of Samuel Nicholson, in Franklin township. John, 
married, and now resides in Union City. Lydia, wife of 
Daniel Kitselman, Wayne township. Robert, who married 



CENTER TOWNSHIP. 175 

Elizabeth Cook, Wayne township. Elvira, died unmarried. 
Joseph, married, and is deceased. Isaac, who is married, and 
resides in Richmond. 4. William, son of Robert, Sen., mar- 
ried Sarah Brad3\ [Sk.] 5. John married Elizabeth Mote, of 
Ohio, and resides at Drakesville, Wapello county, Iowa. 6. 
Ezekiel, who married Sarah Julian, and had three sons and 
three daughters. Jesse, the only son living, is in Rush county. 

Lydia, wife of Hulett, her third husband, lives in Rush 

county. Elbiua, wife of Allen Hatfield, lives in Hancock 
county. The other daughter deceased. Ezekiel Commons 
died in 1831. 7. Hannah married Greenbury Cornelius in 
Virginia; both died in Center, in 1824. They had two sons: 
George, who lives in Tipton county ; David, in Madison county. 
8. Nathan, who married Martha, daughter of Patrick Beard. 
Their children, Enos and Hannah, reside in Mississippi. 9. 
David, who resides in the township. [Sk.] 

William Commons, a son of Robert, was born in Virginia, 
August 30, 1786, and came to Whitewater about 1810. He 
married Sarah Brady in 1815, and settled a mile and a half 
north-west from Centerville, and in 1823, one mile north of 
town, where now Oliver T. Jones resides. He built the first 
court-house and jail, (both of logs,) at Salisbury, and after- 
ward, at Centerville, the first jail [log] and the present court- 
house. He was esteemed for his moral worth ; was a friend 
to the poor, and ever ready to contribute to their relief. He 
died May 23, 1848. His wife died May 24, 1863. They had 
six sons and six daughters : 1. Ruth, who married Lewis Jones, 
a farmer and horticulturist. 2. David B., who died in Kansas. 
3. Rebecca, who married, first, Wm. Beverlin, second, Isaac 
Lewis, and lives at Rockville, Parke county. 4, 5. Reason and 
Charity, twins. Reason married Mary Woods, and removed to 
Iowa. He and his son Henry were in the late war. Henry 
died of sickness in camp; his father, also sick, died at Louis- 
ville, Kentucky, on his way homeward. Charity married, first, 
John Wolf, who died in Hancock county; second, Simpson 
Chandler, and died in the same county. 6. Eliza, who married 
Washington Henderson, who died in the township. 7. Ellen, 
who married Joseph P. Boyd, and lives in Mercer county, 
Illinois. 8. iVa^Aan, went to California; unmarried; not lately 



176 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

heard from — probably uot living. 9. i?o6fr/, married, removed 
to Iowa; now resides in California. 10. Francena, who mar- 
ried, first, Mallory Norman; second, George Blackleaeh, and 
died in the township. 11. Washington, died in infancy. 12. 
Isaac, married Martha A. Jones, and resides at Anderson. 

David Commons, the youngest son of Robert Commons, was 
born in "Western Virginia, July 18, 1800, and came with his 
father to this township in 1812. He was married in 1824 to 
Rachel Mote, and had by her two sons : 1. John, who mar- 
ried Eliza Jane, daughter of John Boyd, and has a son and 
three daughters. He is secretary of Gov. Baker, at Indianap- 
olis. 2. Philip S., who married Hannah Ann, daughter of 
John Maxwell, and lives in Vermillion county, Illinois. Mrs. 
Commons died in 1827. Mr. C. married, second, Bethana Car- 
ter, and had by her five sons and two daughters : 1. Sarah 
Ann, who married Thomas Jordan, merchant in Indianapolis, 
where she died. 2. William, who died at 19. 3. Isaac L., 
who married Martha, daughter of John Boyd, and resides at 
Milton. 4. Robert D., who served three years in the late war 
in the Eighth Regiment Indiana Volunteers. He married 
Olive Jane Harvey, and lives near his father. 5. Joseph A., 
married Amanda Beeson, and lives three miles north of Cen- 
terville. 6. Mary E., wife of Ira Izor, and lives in the town- 
ship. 7. Walter S., unmarried, at home. Mr. Commons has 
held the offices of township trustee and of county commis- 
sioner; and was elected in 1847 and again in 1848, as a repre- 
sentative in the legislature. In 1838, after the death of his 
father, he removed to the farm he had owned for many years, 
and on which he now resides. 

William Craavford was born near Belfast, Ireland, about 
the year 1745. Before he had arrived at man's estate he sailed 
for America, leaving a large prospective inheritance, which 
he forfeited by joining the Colonial army, to w^hich he was 
attached during the entire Revolutionary struggle. He was 
wounded at the battle of Bunker Hill, being stabbed in the 
shoulder in the hand to hand fight which followed the giving 
out of the ammunition of the Colonial army. He was in 
Lafayette's command a great part of his time; and on ac- 








..^^yjeiyty'-i^^^ -^ a-? iz^^^^<^^^^^ ' 



CENTER TOTVXSHIP. 177 

count of his activity and physical strength, as well as his 
courage, he was selected as the bearer of messages and the 
performer of dangerous excursions. He was an early set- 
tler, about two and a half miles south-west from Centerville, 
where Eichard G. Charman resides. lie died December 30, 
1826, and was buried in the Bryan grave-yard. 

Joshua Eliason was born in Delaware, and was married to 
Christina Hucall. He removed to this county with his fam- 
ily, and settled where Thomas Eliason now lives. He had 
by his first wife six children : William, Joshua, Levi, Lydia, 
Kitty, and Betsey Ann. After the death of his first wife he 
married in Center, Patsey Smithson, and had by her five 
children : Ebenezer, Andrew, John, Henry C, and Thomas 
Clayton, who lives on the homestead, near tlie railroad. 
Four of the sons of Joshua Eliason married and settled in 
the township : 1. William, who married Harriet McCollister, 
and settled where he now lives. His children are, Levi, who 
lives in Iowa; James C, south of his father; John M., north- 
east of his father; Andrew J., near his father, north; Martin 
v., south of Centerville ; Joshua, west of his father ; "\Ym. 
C, with his father. Daughters : Mary Ann, who married 
Joseph Eperly, and moved to Iowa ; Betsey Ann, who mar- 
ried Wm. King, of Crawfordsville ; Sarah Ann, who mar- 
ried Elijah R. Harvey. 2. Joshua, brother of "William, mar- 
ried Lucinda King, lives a mile east of Centerville, and has 
a daughter who married James Seaton, and lives in Indianap- 
olis. 3. Levi, also a brother of "William, married Sarah Smith- 
sou, and had two daughters ; the first married Joseph J. 
King; the second, Thomas Myers, who served in the war, and 
lost an arm. 4. Thomas Clayton, the j-oungest of the brothers, 
is married, and lives on the homestead. 

Cyrus Finch was an early and promising lawyer in Cen- 
terville. He was a man of good character, and popular, and 
is well remembered by many of the old inhabitants. He died 
at an early age. He was married to Therese A. Booker, sis- 
ter of Jacob K. and Samuel P. Booker, who, after the death 
of her husband, married "Wm. "Widup, who also died. She 
still survives, at the age of nearly 73 years. 



178 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Abner Haines commenced the practice of law in Center- 
ville in 1831, and continued in it till 1838, when he removed 
to Eaton, Ohio, where he now lives. Judge Haines was a 
fair lawyer, and enjoys the confidence and esteem of his fel- 
low-citizens. 

Samuel Hannah was born Dec. 1, 1789, in the state of Del- 
aware. At the age of six years he removed with his father's 
family to Brownsville, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, on the 
Monongahela river, thirty miles above Pittsburgh. He was 
married July 11, 1811, to Eleanor Bishop, who died Sept. 
26, 1864. In the spring of 1815, with his wife and two chil- 
dren, he went in a flat-boat to Cincinnati, and thence by 
wagons to Warren county, Ohio, where he taught school two 
years. In 1817 he settled in the woods, in what is now the 
township of Washington. His cabin was one of the rudest 
of the rude, being for a time a mere shelter, without a door 
or chimney. In Dec, 1823, having been elected Sherifl:" of 
"Wayne county, he removed from his farm to Ceuterville, the 
county seat. Belonging to the society of Friends, and con- 
scientiously opposed to the collection of fines for refusing to do 
military duty, he resigned his ofiice in the spring of 1825. In 
August following he was elected as a representative in the 
legislature. He declined a re-election, but was in 1826 elected 
a justice of the peace, which ofiice he held about four years. 
The county business being then done by the Board of Jus- 
tices, he was chosen and continued President of the Board 
until 1829, when the Board of Count}' Commissioners was 
restored. He was appointed Postmaster at Centerville under 
the administration of John Quincy Adams, and held the 
office until removed under that of President Jackson, in 1829. 
He was one of the three commissioners appointed by the 
legislature to locate the Michigan road from the Ohio river 
to the Lake, and to select the lands secured to the state by a 
treaty with the Indians, held on the upper Wabash in 1826. 
In 1830 he was elected Clerk of Wayne county, and served 
seven years. In 1843 he was again elected to the legisla- 
ture. In December, 1846, he was elected by the legislature 
Treasurer of State, and served three years. On his election 




4/ a 




j^^/t'H./ ' iC' 'ii'i-l'*--^ <^^~- 



/.- 



CENTER TOWNSHIP. 179 

lie removed to Indianapolis, where he resided until his death, 
with the exception of a residence of about two years at Cen- 
terville, during the construction of the Indiana Central rail- 
way. In March, 1851, he was chosen first President of the 
company, but resigned in July following. He was the same 
summer elected Treasurer of the Indianapolis and Belle- 
fontaine Railroad Company. In May, 1852, he accepted the 
ofiice of Treasurer of the Indiana Central Railway Company, 
and held the office until January, 1864, when he retired from 
active life. He died Sept. 8, 1869, aged nearly 80 years. 

Joseph Holman, son of George Holman, was born in Wood- 
ford county, Kentucky, October 1, 1788, and removed with his 
father to the Whitewater country, two miles south of where 
Richmond now stands. He married, November 22, 1810, 
Lydia Overman, daughter of Ephraim Overman, who was born 
June 13, 1792. He settled half a mile from the present town of 
Boston, and, in March, 1812, three miles north of Centerville, on 
Noland's Fork. In 1814, he was a candidate for the territorial 
legislature. Voting being done viva voce, and it being known 
that there was a tie, his rival, Joseph Brown, voted for himself, 
and Holman, refusing to vote for himself, lost the election. 
Brown died at Corydon before the close of the first session, 
and, in 1815, Holman was chosen to fill the vacancy. At the 
next session, [1815-16,] Congress, in response to a memorial of 
the territorial legislature, authorized the calling of a conven- 
tion to form a state constitution with a view to the admission 
of Indiana as a state into the Union. Gov. Harrison ordered 
an election for the choice of delegates, and Joseph Holman, 
Patrick Beard, Jeremiah Cox, and Hugh Cull were chosen. 
He was, the same year or the next, again elected, and by suc- 
cessive re-elections continued as a representave in the legisla- 
ture, with the exception of one year, until his removal to Fort 
Wayne. In 1823, having been appointed by President Mon- 
roe, Receiver of Moneys at the new land office at Fort Wayne, 
he removed thither, and, with Capt. Samuel C. Vance, Register, 
opened the office in October. He held the office of Receiver 
about six years, and was removed by President Jackson. Dur- 
ing a part of this time he was a partner in the tanning, mercan- 



180 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

tile, and pork busiuess. In 1830, while at Fort Wayne, he 
was again elected to the legislature. In 1833 he removed to 
Fern, where he was for nine years engaged in farming. In 
August, 1843, at the solicitation of his father, who, in his de- 
clining years, desired the attention of one of his children, he 
removed to the old farm of his father, purchased in 1804. In 
1860, the year after his father's death, he removed to Center- 
ville, where he now resides. 

Joseph and Lydia Holman had twelve children. Their 
names, except of two who died in infanc}^, are as follows : 
Polly, who married Chauncey Carter, who died at Logansport, 
a county auditor or treasurer. Solomon, who married Mary 
Forey, of Peru, lud., where he died. He had been assistant 
engineer in constructing the Wabash and Erie Canal, and en- 
gineer of the Whitewater Canal. Patsey, who married Isaac 
Marquiss, of Peru, where both died, leaving eight children, of 
whom Jacob and Isaac died in the late war, of disease. Ra- 
chel Jane, who married Richard Rue, son of Henry Rue. 
They had thirteen children, of whom six or seven are living. 

Elizabeth, who married successively Robert James, 

Fisher, and Isaac Marquiss, and is also dead. Wm. J., who 
married Rebecca Burk, of Indianapolis, and had by her four 
children, all of whom and their mother are dead. He mar- 
ried, second, Martha Butler. By her he had six children, two 
of whom died at Pike's Peak. She also died. He married, 
third, Kate White, by whom he had four children, all living. 
Sarah, who married Henry James, and resides in Grant county. 
He has been twice a member of the legislature, and is a 
preacher in the Christian Church. Rachel, who died at 11. 
Margaretta L., who married Samuel Conner. They reside in 
Texas, and have five children living. Joseph George Eph- 
raim, who married Catharine Morley, of Preble county, Ohio. 
They have six children, and reside near Fort Wayne. 

Levi M. Jones, was born in Kanawha county, Virginia, Oc- 
tober 5, 1787, and was married to Mary Thomas in 1807. In 
1815 he settled in Center township, about a mile north of 
Centerviile. He died October 5, 1823; his wife, March 12, 
1847 — both in Centerviile, whither they removed two or three 
years after they settled on the farm. They bad ten children. 



CENTER TOTVNSHIP. 181 

all married. 1. Lewis married Caroline Leavel. 2. Sarah 
married Robert Franklin. 3. Oliver T. [Sk.] 4. Norris married 

Sarah Jenkins. 5. Harrison married Bundy, and died 

in 1847. 6. Rebecca married Daniel Shank, and died about 

five years ago. 7. Washington married Hunt, daughter 

of Smith Hunt, of Abington township. 8. Eli married Anna 
Crow. Washington and Eli reside at Hecla, "Whitley county, 
Ind. 9. 31 aiy, who married Stephen Crow; and Leui, W'ho 
married Matilda Brown, and lives in Washington township. 

Oliver T. Jones, son of Levi M., was born in Virginia, 
September 19, 1810. He came with his father to Centerville 
in 1815, and commenced labor at an early age. He worked 
at brick-making, farming, and teaching, about seven years, 
within which period he collected state and county revenues 
two years. From 1839 to 1844 he served as justice of the 
peace, and was during the same period county examiner. He 
then removed to the place where he now resides, one mile 
north of Centerville; and was for several years township treas- 
urer. He has followed farming many years, and still superin- 
tends the business of the farm. In 1860 he was elected to the 
legislature as a representative; re-elected in 1862, attended an 
extra session in June, 1863, and resigned. In the ensuing fall 
he was elected a county commissioner, an important oifice 
during the war, which office he still holds. Mr. Jones has also 
for several years been engaged in banking at Centerville. He 
was married, March 7, 1838, to Mary King, of Center. They 
had twelve children : Joseph, who died at 19 ; Jane, who mar- 
ried John M. Eliason ; Elmira ; John K., teller in the bank ; 
Martha, who married Samuel C. Smith ; Lucinda, who married 
Joshua Eliason; Levi M. ; Anna, who married Lewis Shute, 
and resides in Preble county, Ohio; William, Emily, Charles, 
and Lincoln. 

Isaac Julian. The family represented by this name is of 
French and probably Iluguenotic extraction. The family 
name \vas originally St. Julien, but has been shortened and 
anglicised into its present form. The first of the name who 
came to America was Rene St. Julien, a native of Paris, and a 
soldier by profession. He fought under the Prince of Orange, 
afterward William III. of England, at the battle of the Boyne, 



182 HISTORY OF WAYXE COUNTY. 

in Ireland, July 1, 1690, which resulted in the defeat of the ad- 
herents of James II. For his services he received from the 
king a grant of land beyond the Mississippi. But the war of 
the Revohition gave a quietus to such grants. He came to this 
country near the close of the seventeenth century, and settled 
on the eastern shore of Maryhind. lie had a numerous family, 
principally sons, from whom all of the name in America are 
believed to have descended. One of these sons, Isaac Julien, 
as appears from Irving's Life of TVashington, was residing in 
TTiuchester, Virginia, in 1755. He removed to Randolph 
county, North Carolina, where his descendants still reside. 

A son of the above, also Isaac Julian, came to this county 
in 1815, and settled on the farm lately owned by John Bond, 
near Washington. He afterward removed to Greensboro, 
Henry county, where he died. Isaac, Jacob, Rene, and Shu- 
bael, sons of the last named, all preceded him in coming to the 
West, and all, for a time, resided in this county, as also their 
sisters, who were married as fallows : Elizabeth, to TVm. Cox, 
and still lives in Richmond; Ellen, to Absalom Harvey, now 
residing in Missouri ; Sarah, to Ezekiel Commons, and resides 
in Rush county ; Barbara, to Samuel Howard ; and Martha, 
to ITriah Bulla, both deceased. Rene, a man of superior na- 
tural gifts, died many years since at Newcastle, of " milk sick- 
ness," being at the time clerk of Henry county. Jacob died 
near Logansport, September 29, 1870 ; and Shubael still Hves at 
Cadiz, Ind. Isaac, Jacob, Wm. Cox, and George Farlow, still 
of this vicinity, cleared the ground north side of Main street. 
The trees had a few years previously [1807 ?] been prostrated 
by a great storm. , > 

Isaac, the subject of this sketch, and the third of the name, 
in regular succession, is the only one of the name whose fam- 
ily has remained permanently identified with Wayne county. 
He was born in Randolph county, Xorth Carolina, June 4, 
1781. After obtaining the rudiments of education at the 
primitive common schools of that region, he engaged in the 
mercantile business, in which he was not successful. He came 
to this county early in 1808. Both before leaving North Car- 
olina, and after his arrival here, he was engaged in teaching. 
In the winter of 180S-9, he taught a school within a few miles 
of where Richmond now is. He married, March 29, 1809, 



CENTER TOWNSHIP. 183 

Eebecca, a daughter of Andrew Hoover. She was ten years 
his junior. They became acquainted while engaged in plant- 
ing corn on the farm of Wm. Bulla. Her father, being a 
strict and stern member of the Society of Friends, and the 
groom being an " outsider," the marriage was a secret one, 
and was solemnized by Richard Rue, Esq., at his residence, 
three miles south of Richmond. Friend Hoover, however, at 
length relented and forgave the pair, presenting his daughter, 
as a token of his restored favor, some articles for going to 
housekeeping, prominent among which was a resplendent set 
of pewter " dresser ware," They settled first in a cabin on 
the bluff on the David Hoover farm, where their first child 
was born, and afterward removed to a place near Middleboro. 
And soon after the "Twelve Mile Purchase" was made in 
1810, he settled on Poland's Fork, a mile and a half south- 
west of Centerville, where all his other children were born. 

Mr. Julian and his wife shared, not only in the toils and 
hardships incident to the first settling of a heavy timbered 
country, but the greater tribulations attendant on frontier life 
during an Indian war. They were repeatedly compelled to 
flee for safety to the older settlements. During this crisis, 
Mr. Julian was three months in the military service. A 
graphic picture of their experience during this period, from 
the pen of Rebecca Julian, will be found in another part of 
this ^^'ork. 

Mr. J. was one of the first trustees of the town of Center- 
ville. He was twice commissioned a justice of the peace: 
first, Aug. 11, 1815, by Gov. Thomas Posey; and again, Sept. 
8, 1817, by Gov. Jonathan Jennings. He also held the office 
of county commissioner. In 1822 he was a representative 
in the legislature, which met at Corydon, of which he was 
said to be an efficient and useful member. Having become 
pecuniarily involved by going security for others on the eve 
of a financial crisis, he was compelled, in 1823, to sell his 
farm. He removed to what is now Tippecanoe county, where 
he died, Dec. 12, 1823, soon after his arrival, near the Wabash, 
nine miles below Lafayette. Though early cut off, he is said 
to have left a reputation for strict probity, decided natural 
ability and force of character, which gave promise of con- 



184 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

tinued and even increased usefulness. He had read mucli, 
and possessed a good library for the time in which he lived; 
and it was one of his most cherished desires to aftbrd his 
children the opportunity for obtaining a good education. 

By the kindness of friends and relatives, his widow was 
enabled to return to Wayne county. The journey, performed 
in the winter season, with horses and wagon, through an un- 
broken wilderness, was attended with great difficulty and 
extreme sufiering. With the scanty remnant of property 
left her, and by industry and rigid economy, she was enabled 
to keep her family together; and, sharing the spirit of her 
husband, she secured to them all the facilities of a common 
school education. The greater part of her life was spent in 
Wayne county, but the closing scene came at the residence 
of a daughter, at Mt. Vernon, Iowa, ^or. 21, 1867, at the age 
of 76 years. Her memory is cherished by all who knew her. 
Her naturally strong mental powers, social sjmipatliies, and 
religious sentiments appeared to increase during the closing 
years of her life. Isaac and Rebecca Julian had seven chil- 
dren. 

1. John 31., the eldest, was born Jan. 19, 1811, The death 
of his father imposed on him many untimely labors and 
cares. He, however, managed to supplement his scanty edu- 
cational acquirements by an extensive course of reading and 
persevering self-improvement. He was engaged for several 
years in teaching, probably with a view to a preparation for a 
professional career. Possessed of a fine literary taste and a high 
moral character, he strove to stimulate his young associates 
to the cultivation of similar tastes and principles. His varied 
qualities thus early promised a brilliant future. But the 
dawn of promise was suddenly overcast by death, August 21, 
1834. 2. Sarah was born March 10, 1813, and was married, 
Jan. 16, 1840, to Jesse II. Holman, son of George Holman. 
They removed soon after to Linn county, Iowa, where she 
still resides. She has three children. 3. Jacob B. 4. George 
W. [Sketches below.] 5. Elizabeth E., born July 15, 1819, 
was married Jan. 12, 1841, to Allison I. Willetts, a son of 
Jesse Willetts, an early settler on Green's Fork. They set- 
tled soon after in Linn county, Iowa. He Avas the founder 



CENTER TOWNSHIP. 185 

of the town of Mt. Ycrnoii, in that county, and died some 
years since, leaving three chiklren. She married, second, 
Andrew Beatty. 6. Henry, born Nov. 6, 1821 ; died July 21, 
1823. 7. Isaac H. [Sk.] 

Jacob B. Julian, son of Isaac Julian, the subject of the 
foregoing sketch, was born Jan. G, 1815. He was ap})rcnticed 
to Edward K. Hart, a blacksmith, in Centerville, and after- 
ward, for a short time, carried on a shop for himself. He 
began the study of law in 1838, while employed as an assist- 
ant by John Finley, county clerk; completed it in 1839, and 
was admitted to the bar in June, 1839. In the latter part of 
the year he was married to Martha J., daughter of Henry 
Bryan. He has steadfastly adhered to the practice of his 
profession, having never been absent during the sessions of 
the civil courts. In 1844 he was elected prosecuting attorney 
for this judicial circuit. In the winters of 1846-7, and in 
1848-9 he represented Wayne county in the legislature. He 
has, however, been led to no political aspirations, but has 
sought distinction only in his profession, in which he has 
succeeded. Although yet in the prime of life, he has prac- 
ticed law in this county for a greater numlier of years than 
any other man has ever done. He has four children. His 
son, John F., is at present his partner in practice, under the 
firm of Julian & Julian. 

George W. Julian, son of Isaac, was born near Center- 
ville, May 5, 1817. He was six years of age at the time of 
his father's death. This sad misfortune, however, was essen- 
tially mitigated by the fact that his early training was de- 
volved upon a faithful and competent mother. His early 
educational advantages were only such as were aftbrdcd by 
the common schools in a new country. Yet he made rapid 
progress in the acquisition of useful knowledge, by private 
reading and study, done in great part in the evening by fire- 
light — better light being not at all times easily procured. 
The deficiency of the family library, as will be readily sup- 
posed, was supplied by books borrowed of his neighbors. 
After due preparation, he engaged in teaching a country 
school, which business he followed with credit three years. It 
was during the first of his teaching that he signalized himself 



186 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

by successfully resisting the efforts of the " big boys " to com- 
pel him to "treat" on Christmas day, according to a custom 
long prevalent in the "West. About the year 1839, he com- 
menced the study of law, which he prosecuted without the 
aid of a preceptor. He was admitted to practice in 1840, and 
followed the business of his profession, except as interrupted 
by attention to public duties, until the year 1861. In 1845 he 
was elected a representative of the county in the legislature, 
where he advocated the abolition of capital punishment, and 
retrenchment in public expenditures. In 1848, when Zacliary 
Taj^lor was nominated for the presidency by the Whig party, 
he for a season remained neutral, but subsequently attended 
the Buffalo convention which nominated Martin Van Buren 
and Charles Francis Adams, and supported that nomination. 
In 1849 he was elected a representative to Congress over Sam- 
uel W. Parker, a prominent Whig. In 1852, when John P. 
Hale was nominated by the "Free Soil" party for president, 
Mr. Julian was placed on the ticket for vice-president. He 
was a delegate to the first national Republican convention at 
Pittsburg, in the spring of 1856, and one of the vice-presidents, 
and chairman of the committee on organization. In 1860 he 
was again elected to Congress, and by successive re-elections 
continued there till the close of the 41st Congress, March, 1871. 
Among the measures of importance to the country at large 
with which he has been conspicuously identified, are the home- 
stead law, and the attempt to protect the public lands from 
further spoliation by lavish grants to railroad companies, or 
by the sale of large tracts to speculators. He was for ten 
years a member of the house committee on public lands, and 
for eight years its chairman. He was appointed in 1862 a 
member of the joint committee of both houses on the conduct 
of the war, a position which he held nearly four years. He 
was also one of the committee which prepared articles of im- 
peachment against President Andrew Johnson. 

Mr. Julian was married, first, to Ann E. Finch, of Center- 
ville. May 13, 1845, by whom he had three children. After 
her decease, he was married to Laura Griddings, a daughter of 
the late lion. Joshua R. Giddings, of Ohio, December 31, 
1863. 



CENTER TOWNSHIP. 187 

Isaac H. Julian, a sou of Isaac, was born June 19, 1823, 
He early manifested a decided literary taste, and at intervals of 
leisure from farm work, succeeded in accomplishing a course 
of reading in the departments of history and general litera- 
ture. He also early became a contributor, both in poetry and 
prose, to many of the newspapers and periodicals of the day. 
In 1848, he became deeply interested in the antislavery and 
other humanitarian phases of politics, which then took shape 
and gave direction to his subsequent liteiary efforts. He re- 
sided in Iowa from the spring of 1846 to the fall of 1850. He 
studied law, and was admitted to the bar in this county in the 
spring of 1851, but found the practice too distasteful to make 
it a life business. In 185 7, he edited and got published the 
"Memoir of David Hoover," accompanying it with an Ap- 
pendix of interesting and valuable matter relating to the lirst 
settlement of the Whitewater valley. In September, 1858, he 
bought the True Republican newspaper at Centerville, which 
he edited and published with that name until about the close 
of the year 1864, when, having purchased a Richmond paper, 
the two were consolidated under the name of the Indiana 
Radical, which has since been published by him at Richmond, 
to which place he removed January 1, 1865. He was post- 
master at Centerville during President Lincoln's first term, 
and at Richmond from May, 1869, to July, 1871. He was 
married October 16, 1859, to Virginia M. Spillard, and has four 
children. 

Jesse King, from Kentucky, about the year 1826, settled 
two miles north-east from the town of Washington. He had 
a large family; and five of his sons, Samuel, Daniel,, Elisha, 
Lorenzo D., and John, came to this county. Samuel settled, 
in 1814 or 1815, near or adjoining Centerville, and resided in 
other places in the township, and removed successively to 
Rush and Tipton counties, to Iowa, and lastly to the south- 
west part of Kansas, where, at the age of 87, he lives with a 
second wife, and has children, the youngest of whom is about 
the age of tive or six years. Daniel, with Elisha, his brother, 
came about two years earlier than their father, and married 

McAlister. His sons, James and John, died unmarried. 

Kewton lives in Madison county; Isaac in Green township; 



188 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Levi, on the farm of his father; Milton, in Madison. A 
daughter, Mary Jane, married George Ebersal. Elisha settled 
two miles south of Centerville ; afterward started with his 
family for Oregon, and several of his children and himself died 
on the way thither. His widow, after her arrival there, mar- 
ried again, and died there. Lorenzo D. came to the county 
with his father, and after a residence of several years in Green, 
settled where he now resides, in Center. His sons, William, 
Joseph, and Absalom, live in the township. 

John King, son of Jesse King, settled a mile and a half 
north of Centerville, where Joseph King's widow resides, and 
in 1830, where Jackson King resides, near Centerville. His 
children were, 1. Lueinda, who married Joshua Eliason. 2. 
Jcnnes, who married Malinda, a daughter of Caleb 13. Jackson, 
and died at West Grove, where he resided. 3. Joseph, who 
married Sarah Way, daughter of Seth Way, of Green, and 
died where his widow resides. 4. William, who married 
Jemima, daughter of Caleb B. Jackson, and resides four miles 
north-east of Centerville. 5. Mary, wife of Oliver T. Jones. 
6. Presley, who married a daughter of Ebenezer Cheeseraan, 
and has lately removed to Kansas. 7. Nancy married John 
M. Maxwell, who resides near liichmond. She died in Cen- 
ter. 9. Jackson, who married Elizabeth Davis, and lives on 
the late home of his father, near the town. 10. Jesse [not the 
last born, it is believed,] died at the age of 14. 

Jeremy Mansur was born in Temple, Hillsborough county, 
New Hampshire, December 31, 1791. He came in 1813 from 
New Hampshire to Cincinnati on horseback, and after a stay 
of six months, removed to Hamilton, Butler county, Ohio, 
where he was married in 1814 to Jane Carr, and removed the 
same year to Salisbury, then the county seat of Wayne county, 
Indiana, where he worked about six years at the edge-tool 
business. In 1820 or 1821, he settled on a farm between Cen- 
terville and Richmond, on the National road. In 1831, he re- 
moved to Richmond, and engaged in the mercantile business, 
which he continued about eight years. He then returned to 
his farm; and, in 1852, removed to Indianapolis, where he still 
resides, in the possession of an ample fortune acquired by 
honest industry. His children were, 1. Mary Ann, who mar- 





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CENTER TOWNSHIP. 189 

ried, first, John H. Wright, who died in Indianapolis, having 
had four children, two of whom (sons) are living; married, 
second, Charles Parry, a practicing physician and surgeon, 
and Vice-President of the Indiana Central Railway, who also 
died in that city. 2. Clarissa, who married James C. Fergu- 
son, who is engaged in the pork-packing business in Indianap- 
olis. They had seven children, of whom five are living. A 
daughter, Isabel, died while at school in Kentucky as she was 
about to graduate. 3. William, who married Hannah Cully in 
Indianapolis, and had three sons — one living. He has long 
been engaged in pork-packing, and is a director of the Cit- 
izens' Bank. 4. Sarah Jane, who married Wm. S. Reid, of 
Richmond. [See Sketch.] 5. Isaiah, who married Amelia 
Brown of Philadelphia, and is extensively engaged in banking 
in Indianapolis. 6. Franklin, who married Sarah Grewel in 
Indianapolis, and resides there. 7. James Carr, who died at 
the age of three years. 

Thomas McCoy was one of the earliest settlers of Wayne 
county, having come with Holman and Rue, and settled with 
them south of Richmond, in 1805. In 1813, he removed to the 
farm on which he died a few miles south-west of Centerville. 
He is represented as having been an honest man, brave and 
true ; and with a will as firm as his stalwart, iron frame, he 
was a leader among the pioneers. During the Indian war his 
house was their rallying place, and his advice and aid their 
chief reliance. He was of Irish descent, and retained, during 
life, some of the characteristics of his countrymen. He died 
in the winter of 1844-45. His two sons, John, a native of 
Kentucky, and Morgan, one of the oldest natives of this 
county, live on the old place, and are highly respected citizens. 

Oliver P. Morton was born August 4, 1823, in Center 
township, and was married to Lucinda M. Burbank, May 16, 
1845. His parents having died when he was quite young, the 
care of rearing him devolved upon his grandmother and two 
aunts. He was at an early age apprenticed to a half-brother 
in Centerville at the hatter's trade. He worked but a short 
time at the business, and was for a while without steady em- 
ployment. He was at length placed at school at the Wayne 
County Seminary at Centerville, of which Prof. Samuel P. 



190 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Hoshour was the principal. After a course of preparatory 
studies at the seminary, he entered Miami University, at Ox- 
ford, Ohio, in which he made considerable progress in bis 
studies, but left the University without completing the course. 
He returned to Centerville and commenced the study of the 
law, and in 1846 was admitted to practice, and rose rapidly in 
his profession. In 1852 he was appointed judge of the judicial 
circuit to complete the unexpired term of his predecessor. 
Previously to 1854 he acted with the Democratic party ; but 
when that party repealed the Missouri compromise, he severed 
his connection with it, and has since acted with the Republi- 
can party. In 1856 he was a candidate for governor in oppo- 
sition to Ashbel P. "VYillard, the Democratic candidate, and 
was beaten. In 1860 he was elected lieutenant-governor on 
the ticket with Henry S. Lane as governor, and served as 
lieutenant-governor but two days. Gov. Lane having been 
elected by the legislature to the office of senator of the United 
States, Mr. Morton -succeeded him in office. The war, which 
commenced in April, 1861, devolved the most weighty and 
responsible duties upon the state executives. Gov. Morton 
convened the legislature without delay, and means were 
promptly provided to put the state on a war footing. The 
promptitude and efficiency with which he discharged his exec- 
utive duties in relation to the war, gained for him great credit 
throughout the loyal states. At the ensuing election [1864] 
he was elected governor for another term. But before the term 
had half expired he resigned his office, took a voyage to Eu- 
rope, and returned with improved health. In January, 1867, 
he was elected by the legislature senator to Congress for the 
constitutional term of six years, to succeed the Hon. Henry S. 
Lane, whose term expired in March following. He has three 
sons, John M., Walter S., and Oliver T. 

John S. Newman was born in Montgomery county, Ohio, 
April 10, 1805. He came in March, 1807, to what is now 
Wayne township, with his grandfather, who settled two miles 
north of Kichmond. His mother having died (May 18, 1806) 
before their settlement here, he was taken ^ into the family of 
his grandfather, Andrew Hoover, Sen. In January, 1827, he 
removed to Centerville, where he was for a time employed in 




/^^^x<//^-'c^v 




/ / /^^''y /-f-^^..^/'/ f^ 



CENTER TOWNSHIP. 191 

the office of his uncle, David Hoover, then clerk of the county 
courts. He there also studied law ; was admitted to practice 
in May, 1828, and continued in practice there until 1860. For 
nearly ten years of the period of his practice, he was in part- 
nership with Jesse P. Siddall, under the firm of Newman & 
Siddall. In 1834 he was elected a representative in the legis- 
lature. He was afterward, for several years, a partner in the 
firm of Hannah & Newman in the mercantile business, in Cen- 
terville. In 1850 he was elected a delegate to the constitu- 
tional convention. In January, 1847, he was chosen president 
of the Whitewater Valley Canal Company, and served as 
such five years. In 1851 he was chosen president of the In- 
diana Central Railway Company, and, in'1860, for convenience 
to his business, he removed to Indianapolis, where he now re- 
sides. And for the last five years he has been president of the 
Merchants' National Bank of Indianapolis. He was married, 
October 1, 1829, to Eliza J. Hannah, a daughter of Samuel 
Hannah. They had six children : Mary, who married Dr. H. 
G. Carey. Gertrude, wife of Ingram Fletcher, a banker in 
Indianapolis. Omar, engaged in the lumber trade in Chicago. 
Walter, who was 1st lieutenant in the United States army ; 
served in the late war, and died January 1, 1864, at Indianap- 
olis, of disease contracted in the army. Two children died in 
infancy. 

William A. Peelle was born in North Carolina, and came to 
this county with his father, who settled in New Garden in 
1820. He was brought up on the farm of his father; and 
in 1840 he began the study of law at home, and without a 
a tutor. In 1845, he commenced practice at Marion, Grant 
Co., and in 1866 removed to Winchester. In 1848, he was 
elected Prosecuting Attorney, and in 1854 he was elected 
Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Randolph and 
Jay counties. In 1860, he was elected Secretary of State, 
and removed to Indianapolis, Jan. 1, 1861. After the expira- 
tion of his term of office, he removed to Centerville, where 
he still continues the practice of his profession. In March, 
1867, he was appointed Judge of the Criminal Court; and 
was in 1867 a representative of this county in the state legis- 
lature. Judo-e Peelle read law with James S. Frazer, who 



192 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

also studied outside of a lawyer's office, and who was afterward 
a judge of the Supreme Court of the State, and who is now 
a Commissioner at Washington, appointed by President 
Grant in pursuance of the treaty lately negotiated with Great 
Britain, to settle the dift'erences between that country and 
the United States. 

John Pritchett was born in ISTew Jersey, E'ov. 25, 1803, and 
reared in Columbiana county, Ohio, where he studied medi- 
cine ; and came to Centerville in February, 1826. After a 
successful practice for many years, he graduated, in 1843, at 
the Ohio Medical College, Cincinnati. He is at this time the 
oldest practicing physician in the county, excepting Dr. 
Pennington, of Milton. He married Emily Talbot, daughter 
of Samuel Talbot, near Centerville, and had three children : 
1. Mary, who resides with the family at Centerville. 2. Gus- 
tavus, who died in infancy. 3. James M., who resides in 
Washington City. In 1852, he entered the naval school at 
Annapolis, Md., and graduated in 1857, and is still in the 
navy of the United States. He w^as in active service in the 
late civil war. 

William Pugh, a native of South Carolina, settled in Rich- 
mond, in 1818, and soon after removed to Salisbury, where 
he studied medicine with Dr. Ithamar Warner, and returned 
to Eichmond, where he was in practice with Dr. Warner 
until 1824. He then removed to Centerville, and continued 
the practice of his profession until his decease, in 1829, aged 
33. His son, John E. Pugh, is a druggist in Centerville, and 
is said to be the first person born in town. 

James Eariden, a native of Kentucky, after a residence of 
several years in Brookville, and for a time in Salisbury, 
where he studied law, and was a deputy clerk for David 
Hoover, came to Centerville in 1820, where he remained in 
the practice of law until about 1846. He then removed to 
Cambridge City, where he died in 1856 or 1857. Though 
illiterate, he was a man of strong mind, a fair lawyer, and an 
able advocate. He was several times elected to the legisla- 
ture, and was a representative in Congress from 1837 to 1841. 

Geo. Eupe, from Tennessee, came in 1821 to Eichmond, and 
carried on the hatting business for a year. He then removed 



k'^ 




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CENTER TOWNSHIP. 193 

to Perry, about three miles west from where Economy now 
is, and thence, three years afterward, to the present site of 
that town, where he built a log shop and dwelling-house to- 
gether. This was one of the first buildings, if not the very 
first one, within the present limits of the town. lie here 
carried on the hattiug business about thirty years, attaining 
a celebrity nearly equal to that of Beard, of ISTorth Carolina, 
to whom allusion has been made. He is spoken of as a good 
citizen and an honorable man. He died in 1859, in Hamilton 
county, Ind., of cancer. 

Henry B. Rupe, son of George Rupe, was born in Tennes- 
see, 1821, and came the same year with his father to Wayne 
county, Indiana. At the age of ten years, he commenced 
learning the hatter's trade with his father, at Economy, and 
followed the business until 1858. He was early identified 
with the autislavery movement ; and on the organization of 
the Liberty party, was run by that party as a candidate for 
county treasurer. He has lectured much, throughout the 
county, upon the subjects of slavery, temperance, and popu- 
lar education as connected with the common schools. Since 
about the year 1859, he has been a preacher of the Baptist 
denomination. Since the beginning of his ministerial labors, 
he has preached for churches at Concord, at Cambridge 
City, and at Elkhorn. In the fall of 1862, he was elected 
Treasurer of Wayne county ; and in 1864 was re-elected for 
a second term. He is now living on his farm a mile and a 
half south of Centerville. 

John Stigleman was born in Virginia, in the year 1787, 
whence he removed to this county, in 1819, and settled about 
three miles north of Centerville, and a few years later to the 
farm now owned and occupied by his son Henry, where he 
died August 18, 1865, aged 79 years. He was a good and 
useful citizen, of decided Christian character, and an active 
member of the Baptist church. He held the office of county 
commissioner for one or two terms. 

Charles H. Test came to Centerville in 1838, a lawyer of 

experience and of good reputation. He had commenced 

practice, in 1821, at Lawrenceburg ; had practiced also at 

Brookville and Rushville. From 1830 to 1838, he had been 

13 



194 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

a circuit judge. He removed from Ccnterville to "WTiite 
county, and subsequently to Indianapolis, where he now re- 
sides. He has also been judge of Lafayette circuit; has rep- 
resented several diflerent counties in the legislature ; and has 
held for a term of two years the office of secretary of state. 
He is regarded as one of the ablest advocates now in practice 
in the state. 

Jesse Williams, from Kentucky, in 1815, to Franklin county, 
and in 1819 to Centerville. He now resides one and a half 
miles east of town. In 1837, he was elected associate judge 
to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Asa M. Sher- 
man ; was re-elected in 1838 for the term of seven years, and 
again in 1845 for another term of seven years. 

John C. Kibbey, a native of Warren county, Ohio, came to 
this county about the year 1815, and settled at Salisbury. In 
about the year 1821 or 1822, he removed to Richmond, where 
he resided, with the exception of a few years at Centerville, 
until his death some ten or fifteen years ago. He is said to 
have been a man of " a mathematical turn of mind, well read 
in general literature, and an honest man." He was for many 
years a justice of the peace. 

John F. Kibbey, son of the above, was admitted to practice 
March 2, 1852. He was elected, in 1864, to succeed Jeremiah 
Wilson as judge of the Sixth judicial district, and came into 
office, March, 1865. He was re-elected in 1868, and his term 
will expire in 1872. 

Samuel Kussell, a native of Virginia, from Ohio in 1818, 
settled in 1819, where his son Vinnedge resides, about four 
miles north-east from Centerville, and where he died in 1835, 
aged 63. His children living are Samuel, Yinnedgc, and Ann, 
wife of John Kem. John H. Kobe, from Germany, in 1838, 
to Maryland, and after a residence there of eleven years, to 
Center, where he now resides, two miles cast of Centerville. 
John P. Voss, from North Carolina in 1827, settled a year after 
near the site of old Salisbury, in Wayne, and two years later 
on the place where he now resides, two miles east of Center- 
ville, on the National road. John Atkinson, born in New 
Jersey, from Ohio at an early day, settled in the north-west 
part of the township. He died in 1857, where his son Henry 



CLAY TOWNSHIP. 195 

now lives, in Clay. "William Beall, from Kentucky, in 1816, 
entered and settled on the land now owned by Oliver T. Jones, 
south of Lorenzo D. King's; and in 1836, settled where he 
now resides, in Clay, two miles east of Washington, on land 
entered by his father, Archibald Beall. His children are Cur- 
ran, Hannah, Brutus, Amanda, Marion, Susanna. 



CLAY TOWNSHIP. 

Clay township was formed in the year 1832, from several 
of the townships adjoining, and included three sections 
which have since been annexed to Jefferson. Lying wholly 
within the bounds of the Twelve Mile Purchase, few families 
settled in it before the war of 1812. 

James Martindale, from North Carolina, is said to have 
been the first settler on Green's Fork bottom, within the 
limits of this township. He settled on the farm on which 
his grandson, James W. Martindale, a son of John Martin- 
dale, now resides, half a mile from the town of Washing- 
ton. His purchase included lands now owned by Branson 
L. Harris and John Brooks. Jonas Hatfield, Sen., from 
Kentucky, in 1812, settled, with his sons, where the town 
of Washington now is, and where his descendants still re- 
side. Thomas, one of his sons, laid out the town, and died 
many years ago. Jonas, another son, with several of his 
children, still resides there. Abel Jenny, about 1812, set- 
tled where Branson L. Harris now resides, east of and near 
the town. Jesse Albertson, from North Carolina, after 
stopping a year or two in Kentucky, settled two miles 
east of Richmond, and in 1815 removed to the farm on 
which he now resides, half a mile east of town. His brother 
Joshua, who came to Richmond a few years later than Jesse, 
after some years residence there, settled south of his brother, 
on land bought of Richard Ratcliff", now owned by John 
Bond, Jun., and Elwood Albertson. In 1813, Wm. Fox set- 
tled about one mile north of town ; land lately owned by 
John Brooks, now by George W. Davis. Fox removed in 
1844 to Jefferson township, where he died in 1860. Joshua 



196 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Benny settled one and a half miles north-west of town ; land 
now owned by Richard and George Faucett, and James T. 
Nicholson. James Spray, on land now owned by Jacob 
"Wood, afterward half a mile south on the farm since owned 
by John Brooks. 

In the east part of the township, James Odell, about 1813 
or 1814, settled on the farm where "Wm. Coffin resides. Sam- 
uel and Joseph Evans on land now owned by John Bean, of 
Green township, son-in-law of Joseph Evans, and Ransom 
Cheeseman. In 1814, Miles Murphy settled one mile south- 
east of town. John Baldwin, from North Carolina, in 1825, 
bought the farm of Murphy, it being that on which his son 
Jonathan Baldwin resides. He had four sons, Jonathan, 
Isaac, David, and Caleb. Jonathan married Mary Ann, 
daughter of Jesse Albertson. James Porter settled early near 
the Friends' meeting-house. Moses Martindale, brother of 
James, where Alfred Underbill resides. Wm. Young, land 
owned by Josiah Clawson. Benj. Augell, on land on the 
township line, now owned by Alfred Underbill. In 1814, 
John Pierson settled where Henry Atkinson resides. About 
1815, Martin Martindale, son-in-law of Pierson, on land lately 
owned by E. Harvey, now by David Fowler. Wm. Beall, ad- 
joining the township line, where he still lives. Joseph Thorn- 
burg where Daniel Williams lives. Benj. Albertson, on land 
now owned by John Bond, Jun., one mile south-east of town. 
Owen Branson, on part of the land now owned by I. McDon- 
ald and Thomas Adams's heirs. 

In the south-east part of the township, Jonathan Cloud set- 
tled where now his son Joseph Cloud resides. Wm. Pike, on 
laud now owned by the heirs of his son Stephen Pike. Isaiah 
Frazier, hrst, and afterward Jonathan Mendeuhall, on land now 
owned by Lewis Bailey and Henry Franklin. John Hunt, 
after him Israel Gause, on land now owned by Isaac Gause 
and Mrs. E. Brashure. 

In the vicinity of Washington, south and west, were Jesse 
Bond, who, after a residence of six years near Richmond, set- 
tled a mile south of town in 1813 ; lands now owned by his 
sons Nathan, Wm. C, and the heirs of his son Robert. Benj. 
Hall, lessee of Henry Stidham, on land now owned by Larkin 



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tEy ^^e^^p-t^ 



CLAY TOWNSHIP. 197 

Bond, who bought of John Bailey. John Foland, on a part of 
the land now owned by Matthias "Wise. 

In the south and south-west part of the township, were Ste- 
phen Horney, who still resides where he settled ; Moses Coffin, 
where Andrew Horney resides ; Absalom Williams, on lands 
now owned by his sons, Henry and John Williams; Isaac 
Mendenhall, on lands lately owned by David Cook, deceased. 
Henry Hoover settled early on the east side of Green's Fork; 
lands now owned by the widow of his son Andrew, their son 
John, and Perry Wilson. Peter Hoover, brother of Henry, 
bought west and adjoining^ land now owned by the widow of 
his son Erasley, and their son Owen P. Hoover, and Henry T. 
Bond. John Fihcher settled near where O. P. Hoover now 
resides. Valentine Foland, in the south-west corner of the 
township, where he now resides. James Ridge, on lands now 
owned by Theodore Cook. John Wise, in 1832, on lauds now 
owned by his sons George and Matthias Wise. He now re- 
sides in Jay county. Ephraim Gentry, land purchased of Da- 
vid Hoover, now owned by Wm. H. Gentry, son of Ephraim. 

In the ivest fart of the township, David Peacock settled on 
land now owned by his son David ; Wm. Widows, on land 
lately sold to John Allen, who owns other lands adjoining. 
Mason Fithen, about 1817, settled on land now owned by Ja- 
cob Wright and others; Enos Veal, Sen,, and Peter Woolfert, 
in 1817, on lands now owned and occupied by James T. Nich- 
olson and Daniel Strickler. Woolfert sold out and removed 
to section 15. Joseph Davis, on land adjoining the township 
line, where George G. Hindman resides. James Owen, Sen., 
on land now owned by Eulas Bunnell. In 1815, John Brockus 
and Miles Dimet settled on land now owned by Cyrus Osborn 
and John Bradbury. In 1824, Job Smith, on lands lately 
owned by Olinda B. Bunnell and AVilliam Faucett. Ezekiel 
Bradbury, about 1825, where Jonas Hatfield, Jun., resides. Jo- 
nas Hatfield, Sen., father of the present Jonas Hatfield, Sen., 
bought the lands now owned principally by George Faucett, 
Cyrus Osborn, and Daniel Bradbury. 

In the north-west part of the township, Jonathan Shaw set- 
tled, in 1815, on land now owned by Daniel Strickler on the 
township west line. On school section, [16,] first residents 



198 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

were Robert Watkins and "Wm. Elliott. Land sold in 1832 to 
Daniel Bradbury, John Brown, Matthew Holcomb, Enos Veal, 
Samuel Adamson. Ithamar Lamb, Milo Bailey, and Lewis 
Strickler live on it. John Bradbury, from Ohio, in 1815, and 
his brother Josiah settled on Morgan's creek. John, a few 
years after, removed to the Wabash, and in 1829 to his pres- 
ent residence a mile west of town. Daniel Bradbury early 
bought of his brother Josiah, and settled where Milton R. 
Harris now resides ; and in 1866 at his present residence near 
town. The land first settled by John Bradbury is now owned 
by Eulas Bunnell. David Sears, in 1820, settled on land now 
owned by Edwin F. Ogborn. Enos Yeal, Jun,, and Elias Ven- 
niman, on land now owned by Jane Ogborn and John Fowler. 
About 1828 or 1830, Peter Woolfert, who settled about 1817 
in section 27, and Wm. Ball, settled on lands now owned by 

E. Merritt Lamb and Jesse W. Brooks. In 1821, Eve, widow 
of Evan Shoemaker, (since removed to Wabash,) settled on 
land now owned by Joseph Lamb. James Starling, on the 
land now owned by Joseph Long. Henry Riggs, on the land 
Merritt Lamb owns. Wm. Ball and Frederic Dean, on land 
now owned by John Gil more and Eli Wiseman. 

In the noi^th part of the township, section 14, Wm. Under- 
bill settled on land now owned by John Ball and Oliver Wil- 
son. Jesse and Isaac Baldwin, on land now owned by Enos 
Yeal and John Wilson's heirs. Philip and Henry Renberger, 
about 1819, on land now owned by John Gilmore and John 
Wilson's heirs. Henry Garrett and Abraham Elliott, as early 
as 1813 or 1814, on part of section 23; lands now owned by 
Samuel Cook and Wm. F. Dean. David Young, where Wm. 

F. Dean resides. Jonathan Ross and John Richter settled 
where M. Funk now lives. 

Absalom Williams, born in I^Torth Carolina in 1775, after a 
residence of seven years near Richmond, entered in Clay town- 
ship the land where his son Henry resides. He died in 1868, 
at the age of 93. Wm. Osborn, about 1820, setttled near 
Washington, and died in 1831, aged 29. Cyrus, his son, re- 
sides half a mile below town. Daniel Williams, born in Korth 
Carolina in 1792, from Pennsylvania in 1833, settled in the 





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(^^J ec^^i.^cc£^ (/7%-cci>C^^~c-c^' 



CLAY TOWNSHIP. 199 

north-east part of the township, where Allen M. Harris lives; 
now resides one and a half miles east of Washington. 

John Brooks, from North Carolina, in 1831, to this county, 
settled, in 1844, on the land entered by Wm. Fox, one mile 
from Washington, and is now living half a mile east of town. 

Thomas Cook settled, at an early day, where his son Samuel 
Cook lives, two miles north from Washington, and where he 
died in 1824, aged 56. He is supposed to have been the first 
saddler in Washington. Samuel Ball, born ia Virginia, from 
Tennessee in 1820, settled where Benjamin Thorn lives, and 
died in 1849, near where his son Joha Ball resides. John 
Wilson, from South Carolina, about 1820, settled two miles 
north-west from Washington, where he died in 1852, aged 36. 
Joseph Lamb, from jSTorth Carolina, settled, hi 1829, on land 
adjoining Perry, where he died in 1855, at the age of 73. His 
children were, Ezekiel, deceased; Esther, Smith, deceased; 
Elias, Mournen, Joseph, Ithamar. John Bailey, a native of 
Virginia, from Kentucky about 1810 to Richmond, thence, a 
few years after, to Perry, and next to Clay, in 1859, where his 
son Milo resides; died in 1863, aged 72. Wm. Hindman, 
from Ohio, in 1839, settled two and a half miles west of 
Washington, and died in 1843, aged 42. George, his son, lives 
on the west line. Wm. Wright, from Maryland, in 1825, set- 
tled two miles south-east from town, where he died in 185 i, 
aged 74. Jacob, his son, lives one and a half miles west from 
town. 

Hugh Allen, from Ohio in 1820, settled three miles south- 
east from Hagerstown, near where he died, aged 6Q. His son 
John lives about two miles west of Washington ; Jacob, an- 
other son, in Jefferson. David Cook, from Virginia, about 
1831, settled one mile south of Washington, where he died in 
1870, aged 59. Theodore, his son, lives two miles south-west 
from town. Emsley Hoover, from Ohio, about 1811, settled 
on Green's Fork, south-west from Washington, where his son 
Owen P. lives; died in 1865, aged 69. Valentine Poland, born 
in Virginia in 1789 ; served in the war of 1812. In 1815 he 
bought, and in 1821 settled on the land where he now resides, 
south-west corner of the township. 

Henry Garret bnilt the first Grist-mill, a mile and a half 



200 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

above town, about the year 1814. Jonas Hatfield soon after 
commenced building a saw-mill that year at Washington, but 
not living to finish it, it was completed the next year by his 
son Thomas, who four or five years after also built a grist-mill 
at the same place. Henry Hoover, (not of Richmond,) about 
the year 1840, built a saw-mill two miles below Washington, 
and afterward sold it to Samuel Boyd, who, about the year 
1855, also built a grist-mill at the same place. 

About the year 1825 — perhaps later — Thomas Hatfield built 
a Carding Machine and a Falling Mill near his other mills, and 
after running them about a year, he procured of Jesse Bond 
a site a fourtti of a mile below, to which he removed them, and 
soon after sold them to the Bonds, who removed them further 
down to near where N'athan Bond resides. 

Wm. Underhill and Joshua Benny are said to have been the 
first Blacksmiths in the township. 

Lisbon Basey and John Russell, in partnership, are supposed 
to have been the first Merchants, in the year 1818 ; next, Allen 
Osborn and Wm. Bunnell ; and next, John Martindale, son of 
James, who, in 1830, sold out to Mark E. Reeves, who, with 
an additional, stock, established a store which he continued 
until 1840, when he removed to Hagerstown, continuing an in- 
terest in the store at Washington in partnership with James 
W. Scott for about five years. Jonathan & Stephen Cofiin com-^ 
menced trade in 1843 ; and the business was continued by 
Stephen. Present merchants : Dry Goods — Dr. Lorenzo D. 
Personett and John M. McCown. Grocers — Allen Daugherty, 
Wm. S. Hatfield. 

The first Physician is said to have been a Dr. Howard, who 
was soon followed by Dr. Johnson. Dr. William Bunnell, 
who came about the year 1823, is said by some to have been 
the first " regular," licensed physician. He died, in 1853, of 
cholera. He was succeeded by his son, Rhodes W. Bunnell. 
Lorenzo D. Personett came in 1844. The two last-mentioned 
are the present practicing physicians. 

Abraham Elliott is supposed to have been the first Justice of 
the Peace within what is now Clay township ; the next, per- 
haps, was John Martindale, brother of James. 

The jFVienaJs formed the first Peligicus Society; and a log 



CLAY TOWNSHIP. 201 

meeting-house was built as early as 1814 or 1815, by Jesse 
Bond, below the town, near the grave-yard. A frame house 
was afterward built at or near the same place. After the 
schism of 1828, those calling themselves "Orthodox" built a 
house about a mile north-east of town, on land given for that 
purpose by John Baldwin. The only society in the vicinity 
now holds its meetings in this house. 

A Methodist Church was organized at an early day; but in 
what year has not been ascertained. Their meetings were 
early held at the house of James Porter, in the vicinity of the 
Friends' meeting-house, north of town. In 1815, Rev. AVm. 
Hunt was on Whitewater circuit, and is known to have 
preached in this place. Among the early members were 
James Porter, James Odell, Wm. Fox, and their wives, and 
Polly Morgan, whose husband had been killed hy Indians at 
Morgan's Creek. The names of preachers who succeeded 
Mr. Hunt on Whitewater circuit are given elsewhere. 

The church of the United Brethren is said to have existed 
upward of thirty years. The precise date of its forma- 
tion is not remembered. The society built a frame meeting- 
house near the creek, which they occupied until 1870, when 
their new brick house in town was completed. 

The Town of Washington was laid out by Thomas Hatfield, 
and the description of the original plat, certified by him as 
proprietor, and Abraham Elliott, surveyor, September 28, 1818, 
was acknowledged for record November 19, 1818. 

A Block-house without a fort was built in war-time on or 
near Joshua Benny's farm, a mile north of Washington. On 
John Martindale's land, four miles west of this town, a fort 
and block-house were built by Martindale and his sons, Elijah 
and William, Charles Morgan, Reynolds Fielder, Jacob 
Gallon, and Jonathan Shaw. 

A Lodge of Free Masons, Acacia, No. 242, was organized 
under dispensation January 29, 1859, and held its first meeting 
February 15, 1859. Its charter is dated May 25, 1859. Its 
ofiicers were Rhodes W. Bunnell, W. M.; Wm. McCafFerty, 
S. W.; Hugh H. Keys, J. W. ; Charles Evans, Treasurer; 
Daniel D. Rogers, Secretary. Walter Rogers, Sen. Deacon ; 
Samuel Cook, Deacon. 
14 



202 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Green's Fork Lodge, No. 184, I. 0. 0. F., was instituted 
February 25, 1857, with the following named persons as the 
first officers: James W. Scott, N. G. ; Calvin Conner, V. G.; 
Thomas M. Kerr, Secretary ; Joseph F. Eeynolds, Treasurer. 

Bellis Fncam2)7nent, No. 71, /. 0. 0. F., was instituted Au- 
gust 31, 1865. First officers: George W. Ebersol, C. P.; 
John Bean, H. P.; Joseph Ludlum, S. W. ; George W. Davis, 
J. W. ; Lorenzo D. Persouett, Scribe ; Adam Ileinheimer, 
Treasurer. 

Biographical and Genealogical. 

Jesse Bond was born in Grayson county, Ya., and was mar- 
ried to Phebe Commons, a daughter of Robert Commons, in 
North Carolina. In 1807 he emigrated from Virginia to Indiana 
Territory, and settled on the farm on which the Earlham College 
buildings stand. In 1813 he removed to a farm near the present 
town of "Washington, where he continued to reside until his 
decease, April 11, 1862. He was a member of the Society of 
Friends and a minister fram his youth. He was one of the 
earliest ministers of the "Whitewater meeting. The existence 
of American slavery he deplored most deeply; and had his 
life been protracted another short year, he would have had the 
satisfaction of witnessing its overthrow. He is represented as 
having been exemplary in his deportment, and singularl}^ faith- 
ful in the discharge of domestic, social, and religious duties. 
He had eleven children. 

1. Nathan, who married Tamar Kenworthy. 2. Robert, who 
married Rachel Thornburg, and died in 1864. 3. John, who 
married Mary Barnard, and died in 1867. 4. William C, who 
married Hannah Locke, daughter of Wm. Locke, an early 
settler in Perry. 5. Enos, who married Susan Hoover, and 
removed to l!fewcastle, where she died in 1869. 6. Isom, who 
married Dinah Kenworthy, and removed to Miami county, 
Ind., where he died in 1847. His widow married Jediah Bond ; 
they live at Louisville, Henry county. 7. Ruth, wife of "Will- 
iam Is'icholson, and resides at l!Tewcastle. 8. Hannah, wife of 
John "Wilson, who died in 1852. 9. Isaac, who married, first, 
Catharine Eargood, and resides at Peru ; second, Millicent 
Mendenhall. 10. Jesse, who married, first, Jane Cox ; second, 




i ■i^'V '^ f 



lEmim rnikm. 



CLAY TOWNSHIP. 203 

Harriet Haiigh, and resides at Peru. 11. Lydia, wife of Oliver 
MendeDball, and resides at Newcastle. 

Daniel Bradbury was bora in Warren county, Ohio, in the 
North -western Territory, September 22, 1800. He removed 
to this county in 1819, and settled in what is now Clay town- 
ship, on Morgan's creek, three miles north-west of Washington. 
He was married, August 23, 1821, to Mary Elliott, at Jack- 
sonburg. In 1866 he removed to the farm on which he now 
resides, half a mile north of the town. He had six children, of 
whom three died young. Of those who survived them, John 
died from injuries received from the running away of a team; 
his widow and a son died a few years after. Jane married, 
first, James Wilson, who died about three years after his mar- 
riage; second, Edwin F. Ogburn. 31atilda married Milton R. 
Harris. All reside in the neighborhood of Sugar Grove. Mrs. 
Bradbury died April 4, 1868. Mr. B. married for his second 
wife, Hannah Buck in 1869. He was in 1839 elected a county 
commissioner. In 1840 he was elected a representative in the 
legislature, and in 1841 declined a nomination. He has also 
served for thirteen years as assessor, principally in four town- 
ships, and for twelve years as superintendent of the county 
asylum. 

Valentine Foland was born in Virginia in 1789, and was 
married in 1811 to Sarah Eoler. He served in the war of ] 812. 
In 1815 he purchased, and in 1821 he settled on the land 
where he now resides, in the south-west corner of the town- 
ship. Anne, his daughter, born December, 1811, was married, 
in 1828, to John Kepler, of Harrison, and had a daughter, 
Mary Catharine, who was born in 1839, and was married, in 
1856, to Wm. A. Black. Their children living are Lycurgus, 
Virginia B., Frank M., and Charles. 

Henry Hoover, a native of North Carolina, from Ohio in 
1811, settled on the land now owned by his son John, two 
miles south of Washington. He died in 1842, aged 68. His 
children were Lelah, Rebecca, Levi, Rachel, Andrew, Nancy, 
Elizabeth, Catharine, Henry, and John, of whom Lelah, Eliza- 
beth, Catharine, Henry, and John are living. 

Samuel Ogburn, a native of New Jersey, came from Ohio 
to Washington in 1825, and died in 1839 about a mile and a 



204 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

half west from town. His children were Joseph ; Mary, de- 
ceased; Edwin F. ; Allen W,, who lives in Dublin; Evan; 
Lydia, \x\fe of Francis Elliott; Ezra, in Chariton, Iowa; Joel, 
Union Mills, Iowa; Ann, deceased, wife of Rev. G. H. Bird, 
Fairview, Randolph county. 



DALTON TOWNSHIP. 

The township of Dalton was formed from Perry in 1847, and 
lies in the north-west corner of the county. It is four miles 
square, containing an area of sixteen square miles. Of the 
lands comprised in this township, only a narrow gore, about 
three-fourths of a mile wide on the south line, and coming to 
a point about three miles north, on the Perry line, lies within 
the Twelve Mile Purchase; consequently none but this was 
ready for sale to settlers until 1822. Several families, however, 
settled west of that Purchase several years prior to the sale 
by the Government. 

Aquila West settled on the farm now owned by Lyndsey 
Dennis, near the town, as early, probably, as 1818 or 1819. 
He removed some years after from the county. James Lind- 
ley settled, soon after West, south-east from town, on West 
River, where Jesse Fonts now resides. He removed from the 
township, and died. Seth Mills, from Tennessee, settled on the 
farm now owned by Isaac W. Beeson. These, and some in 
other parts of the township, settled before the lands were of- 
fered for sale. 

Joseph Davis, from North Carolina to Ohio, in 1808, re- 
moved, in 1823, to the farm on which he now resides, near 
town. Charles Burroughs, from Virginia, purchased a mile 
and a half north of town, in 1822, and settled permanently 
half a mile north of town, in 1826, where he now resides. 
Isaac W. Beeson, from North Carolina, settled early near 
Franklin, and in 1835 where he now resides, near and west of 
Dalton. Isaac Reynolds, from North Carolina, settled near 
Franklin, on land bought by his father of Sampson Smith, 
now owned by Wilson Reynolds. Nathan Baldwin, from 
North Carolina, near town, in 1830 or 1831, where he still re- 



DALTON TOWNSHIP. 205 

sides. Thomas E. Beeson, from North Carolina, son of Isaac 
Beeson, about 1831, one mile east of town. Pleasant Harris, 
from !N^orth Carolina, near Franklin; land now owned by 
Thomas and Wilson Dennis ; had settled early in New Garden; 
came to Dalton before the land sales ; removed to Iowa, and 
died there. Benj. F. Beeson, from North Carolina, near 
Franklin ; land now owned by John Bering, Thomas Nichol- 
son, and others. Thomas Antrim, from Tennessee, about 
1820, three-quarters of a mile north of town; land now owned 
by Charles Burroughs and Isaac Covalt. Samuel Beeson, half 
a mile east of Dalton, about 1826; died there, aged about 94 
years. Land first settled by Wra. Main. 

In the north-ioestern part of the township, Andrew Starbuck 
settled where widow Tinkle lives. Thomas Burroughs, from 
Virginia, father of Charles, on land sold to Joseph Kouth, 
now owned by Col. Thompson. In the north-east quarter of 
the township, Wm. Maudlin and Wright Spradlin settled on 
the county line, and still reside there. Dempsey Thornburg, 
where he now resides. George M. Lee, where George M. 
Jordan lives. Isaac Bouth, from Tennessee, where a widow 
Routh now lives. Bouth removed to Wells county, and died 
there. Henry Mills, on the farm lately owned by James 
Lumpkins, who died there in 1870. Henry Thornburg, from 
Tennessee, about 1820, died on his farm, now owned by 
Richard C. Cheeseman. Sophia Williams, before land sales ; 
land descended to her sons, Henry and Joseph ; now occupied 
by Henry, and by Nathan Dennis. Enoch Gardner; land now 
owned by Wesley S. Leadbetter. Joseph Brewer, a native of 
North Carolina, from Tennessee, on land now owned by John 
W. Jordan. 

In the south-east part of the township, were the following : 
Wm. Wright, on Perry line ; land now owned by Jesse 
Weaver. Charles Howell, from North Carolina, before land 
sales; land now owned by his sons, Larkin and Joseph, and 
John H. Thornburg. He -lives with Joseph. He and Henry 
Williams are the only men living who settled in the township 
before the land sales. Isaac Mac}^ from Tennessee ; land now 
occupied by his widow and heirs. John Aaron Locke, from 
Perry, settled where he now resides. Jacob Bales, from Ten- 



206 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

nessee, on West liiver before laud sales, on land now owned 
by Richard C. Cheeseman. George Petro, a blacksmith, prob- 
ably the first in the township, on land owned by liichard C. 
Cheeseman. John Strode, on land now occupied by George 
Pierce. James Strode, from Kentucky, adjoining his son John; 
died on the farm, now occupied by his widow and Thomas 
Beeson. "Wm. Thornburg, Sen., from Tennessee, an early 
settler on "West River; land now occupied by Thomas E. 
Thornburg. Lewis, Henry, and Larkin Thornburg, sons of 
Henry, Sen., removed to Iowa, where Larkin died. The farm of 
Henry is now owned by Richard C. Cheeseman ; that of Lewis, 
by Nathan W. Strode ; and that of Larkin, by J. A. Locke. 
John Evans, a Baptist minister, settled on land now owned by 
Samuel Brown. Abraham Tout, from Tennessee, who died of 
a cancer, on land owned by Cornelius Thornburg and Jesse 
W. Locke. John Barr, a native of Scotland, on land now 
occupied by his widow and son John. Joseph Keever, from 
Ohio, on land owned by Jackson Keever and David Fleming's 
heirs. Martin Keever, adjoining his brother Joseph; was 
killed by lightning seven or eight years ago. His heirs still 
reside there. Jesse Osborn, from Tennessee, on land lately 
owned by Seneca Keever, now by Samuel Brown. 

Li the south-vjcst quarter of the township, Jonathan Evans, 
settled on land now owned by Joseph Weaver. Joseph John- 
son, from North Carolina, about 1820, a mile south of Frank- 
lin ; died there; present owner, Branson Dennis. John Smith, 
from Pennsylvania ; present owners, B. Dennis, J. G. Allen, 
Wm. Baldwin. Peter Smith, from Tennessee, about 1822; 
died on his farm about three years ago ; his wife a year before. 
His son-in-law, James Conaway, resides on the farm. Aaron 
Lesh, from Ohio, about the same time as Smith ; present 
owner, Martha Newcomb. Thomas Richardson, on land now 
owned by Abraham Smith. Thomas Marshall, from Tennessee, 
before land sales; died on the farm, now or lately owned by 
John and Alexander Ditch, and occupied by John. Stephen 
Lear, from Ohio, where Levi Harter now lives. Daniel Ulrich, 
from Ohio, son of John Ulrich, of Jefferson township, about 
1824, in the south-west corner of the township, adjoining the 
White Branch Woolen Mills. Benj. Beeson, from North Car- 
olina, bought of Lear one mile south of Franklin, where 



DALTON TOWNSHIP. 207 

Levi Harter resides. Sons of B. Beeson are Isaac W., Ben- 
jamin F., Silas H., Ithamar, Charles O., who resides at New 
Buffalo, Michigan, and has a sou Jehu, at Anderson, Madison 
county. 

Besides those already mentioned, who settled near Dalton 
and Franklin, the following may be added : Zachariah Beeson, 
one mile north of Dalton, in 1824; was a gunsmith, and had a 
corn-cracker and a saw-mill ; land now owned by John Pa3'ne, 
Hezekiah Beeson, from North Carolina, an early settler near 
FrankUn ; sold to Wm. Beeson ; land now owned by George 
Nicholson and others. Isaac Beeson, from North Carolina, 
one mile east- of Dalton, about 1831 ; name of present owner 
not learned. 

The first Tannery in the township was built by Benj, F. Bee- 
son, who settled near Franklin. It was afterward carrried on 
by Jesse Evans, who now resides in Iowa. 

The first Grist-mill was built in 1824 or 1825, by Charles 
Stout, from North Carolina, near Lindley's farm. Seth Mills 
built the next at Dalton, about the year 1826. Pleasant Har- 
ris and Tense Massey, about the same time, built the first saw- 
mill near Franklin. Benj. F. Beeson, soon after, built a grist- 
mill on Mill Branch, half a mile soiith of Franklin ; and near 
the same place an oil-mill was built by Beeson Brothers. Jesse 
Baldwin also built an oil-mill near Dalton, about the year 1832 
or 1833. In 1837, the Dalton Steam Mill Company built on 
Nettle Creek a steam saw-mill and a grist-mill. Both were 
burned about the year 1848. The saw-mill only was rebuilt. 
In 1840, Beeson Brothers built a grist-mill in the place of 
their old saw-mill. About 1850, James Maulsby built a 
grist-mill a little below the site of the old grist-mill on Mill 
Branch. The old grist-mill and oil-mill are both gone. 

Henry Thornburg built on West River, some thirty years 
ago, a saw-mill; also at the same place a Carding Machine, 
which run about twenty years. 

The first Merchant in the township is said to have been Benj. 
F. Beeson, at Franklin ; others say Ilezekiah Beeson. Aaron 
Mills is named as an early merchant at Dalton. Charles Bee- 
son is known to have traded at Franklin in 1839. Also, Silas, 
Lewis, and Aaron Lesh, Oliver and Joseph Williams, Silas B. 



208 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Maulsby, Benj. B, Beeson, Wra. Tliornburg, and Wm, and 
Enos Canaday, are said to have traded at Franklin. At Dal- 
ton, between 1838 and 1845, John W. Williamson, Jehu T. 
Elliott, and Henry D. Root ; and at difterent times, Joseph 
Ruth, J. and D. Canaday, David and "William Chamness, 
Robert Lumpkin, and Thomas McCracken. Present mer- 
chants at Franklin : John Macy, dry goods ; Millikin Hockett, 
groceries. At Dalton : Wm. S. Chamness, Riley Chamness, 
both dry goods. 

Dr. Silas Beeson, the first resident Physician in the town- 
ship, settled at Franklin about 1830, and died there. Later, 
were Henry Carver, Erhart, and Patterson. John W. Smith 
(botanic) was the first at Dalton, in 1836. Later, were Wra. 
Dickey (1840), Drs. Simmons, J. R. Brown, Guinther, Windle, 
Showalter, and the present physician, John Stonebraker. 

The White Branch Woolen Mills are on the White Branch 
stream, two miles south of Franklin. A building was erected 
by Daniel Ulricli for a grist mill, but he put into it machinery 
for a woolen factory. In the year 1854, it was bought by 
Wm. and Josiah Test. The establishment has since been 
much enlarged by the erection of buildings and the increase 
of machinery. The present proprietors are Wm. and Rufus 
Test, and Josiah V. Jones, [Test Brothers & Jones.] It has 
two sets of machines, and two roll-cards, and nine looms. The 
goods manufactured are jeans, satinets, cassiraeres, flannels, 
blankets, and 3'arn. Custom work, as carding, spinning, and 
cloth-dressing, is also done at this establishment. 

The first School-house in the township is said to have stood 
where Dalton now is, and Luke Wiles to have been the first 
teacher. Although the common schools in this township are 
probably not inferior to those of other townships of the county, 
there is no high or graded school in it, owing, probably, to the 
fact that it has no town of sufficient population to require or 
sustain one. 

The earliest Religious Society in the township was that of the 
Friends, who organized a meeting about the year 1827 or 1828, 
at West River, and held their meetings at first in a log house. 
Another was formed a few years later at Franklin, where they 
built a frame house. Both meetinofs still exist. Here, as at 



DALTON TOWNSHIP. 209 

some other places, the antislavery agitation caused a temporary 
disunion. No other division has existed here. Absalom Den- 
nis, Miles Mendenhall, Mahlon Chamness, and Mahlon Dennis 
are among the names of residents who have been preachers. 

The Methodists, at a later date, formed a class at Dalton, and 
had preaching for a short time. None has existed here for 
many years. A church, a portion of whose members reside in 
this township, was formed about forty years ago, and built a 
meeting-house a mile and a half north of Dalton, on the north 
side of Randolph county line. This society still exists. 

The Baptists also had in Dalton a society and a meeting- 
house, and had preaching a part of the time. James Austin 
was their first preacher. A church, formed by a union of two 
or more smaller ones, many years ago built a meetiiig-house a 
little north of the line of Randolph county. Into this church 
the society at Dalton was merged. 

The United Brethren have had a society and a meeting-house, 
about two miles east of Dalton, about twenty years. Ab. 
Tout gave the land for the grave-yard, Lewis AVeaver the 
ground for the church. Early members of this church were 
Jeannetta Barr, afterward wife of Wm. Marshall, and her sis- 
ter Mary, w^ife of Abraham Smith ; Henry Bailes, John Bailes, 
Lewis Bailes, Wm. Linley, [now a Dunker preacher.] They 
have had as preachers, Dr. Richardson, Daniel Stober, John 
Brown, Alexander Carroll, and perhaps others. Their present 
preacher [1871] is James M. Cook. 

The Toion of Dalton was laid out by Tense Massey and 
Joseph Davis, proprietors, and Joseph Davis, surveyor. The 
plat bears date January 25, 1828. An addition was afterward 
made by Joseph Davis, and, in 1836, another by Nathan Bald- 
win. 

The Town of Franklin was laid out by Benj. F. Beeson and 
Silas H. Beeson. The plat, signed by them as proprietors, 
and Thomas Stanford as surveyor, was recorded January 7, 
1832. 

Isaac Macy and Wm. Davis were the first Justices of the 
Peace of the township after its organization. The present 
justices are Wm. Chamness and John W. Macy. 
15 



210 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Biogrcqjliical and Geneological. 

Charles Burroughs was born in Frederick county, Vir- 
ginia, December 20, 1794. He removed with his father to 
Warren county, Ohio ; and in 1814 to Washington township, 
in this county. In 1822 he purchased land a mile north of 
where the town of Dalton now is, and settled on it perma- 
nently in 1826. He married in August, 1826, Jane Harris, 
daughter of Pleasant Harris, who was born July 26, 1811. 
They had fourteen children, as follows: 1. John C, formerly 
a practicing physician in Henry county, now a farmer in Har- 
rison. 2. Abigail, who married Thomas B. Williams, and 
died in Economy in 1870. 3. Francis M., who married Emily 
Routh, and died in Wells count}'-, June, 1862. 4. Jonathan 
M., who married Eleanor Thornburg, was 1st Lieut, in Com- 
pany C, 9th Indiana Regiment, and died from wounds re- 
ceived near Franklin, Tennessee. 5. Hannah, who married 
Robert Lumpkin, and died in Randolph county. 6. James 
31., Avho married Adaliza Gilmore. 7. Arminta, who died at 
4. 8. Letty, who married Benj. Hunt, and resides in Kansas. 

9. Cassias M., who was in the late war; married Sarah JSTeft*. 

10. llaria, who married Isaac Cavalt. 11. Thomas; 12. 
Laura B.; 13. Emma; 14. Marg. 

William Chamness, from ISTorth Carolina, came to Dalton 
township [the date and the place of settlement not ascer- 
tained.] He had six sons, who settled in and near Wayne 
county : 1. Nathan, who lives one mile west from the town. 
2. Joseph, who resides one and a half miles north-west from 
town. 3. Isaac, who settled in Randolph county. 4. V/ill- 
iam, who settled one and a quarter miles north-east from 
town. 5. Joshua, who lives in Randolph county. 8. Jesse, 
who settled a mile north-west from town. 

Sons of Kathan Chamness arc, William S,, a merchant of 
Dalton ; David, who resides with his father. Riley, son of 
William, is also a merchrint in Dalton. Jehu, also a son of 
AVilliara, is a wagon-maker, Larkin resides three-quarters of 
a mile east, and is a farmer. Seth resides in Riclmioiid. 

Joseph Davis was born in Chathg-m county, IS'orth Carolina, 
October 3, 1785. He removed with his father to Surry 



FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. 211 

conuty and mfirricd, May 81, 1807, Catharine Farsncr, who 
was born Jan. 15, 1787. lie removed to Ohio in 1808, and 
thence, in 1823, to the phace where lie now resides, near the 
town of Dalton. His wife died in September, 1870. Their 
children were : 1. NatJtan, who married Hannah Moore, re- 
moved to Henry county, where he died, Jan. 1, 1870. 2. 
William, who married Abigail Wright, removed to Howard 
county, and died there. 3.- Mary, who married David Bald- 
win, and resides in Hamilton county. 4. Ajuia, who married, 
first, Newton Baldwin ; second, Daniel Thornburg. 5. Georrje, 
who married Charlotte Baldwin, and removed to Grant 
county. 6. John, who married Caroline Chamness ; resides 
on the homestead. 7. Edivin W., who married Kezia Baler, 
and lives in Randolph county. 8. Lewis, who died at 10. 



FEANKLIN TOWNSHIP. 

Franklin township was formed from New Garden, May, 
1834. Its shape is oblong, being 7 miles in length, north and 
south, and 4 miles in breadth, east and west, containing 28 
square miles of territory. The Richmond and Ilillsboro' 
turnpike enters the township one mile west of the Ohio line ; 
and the road runs along the lines of lots straight through' the 
township to its north line. Its principal stream is the Middle 
Fork of Whitewater, which enters the township from Ohio, 
about 2J miles south of the north-east corner, and runs 
almost directly south, about half a mile from the Ohio line, 
to the south line of the township. 

The first settler within the township is believed to have 
been Isaac Commons, from North Carolina, in 1808 or 1809, 
one mile north of Middleboro', on land now owned by William, 
son of John M. Addleman. He was soon followed by Robert 
Morrisson on the lot adjoining, north, which he sold to Henry 
Palen, and Palen to Joseph Ashton. John Nicholson settled 
on land now owned by J. M. Cox and Joseph Nicholson. 
Barnabas Boswell, on the south line, land now owned by E. 
Townsend and John Cox. Isaac Iliatt, on the quarter now 
owned by J. Butters and Robert Cox. All of these, it is 



212 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

believed, were Friends from ISTorth Carolina, excei^t JSTicliol- 
son and Asliton, who came from Delaware. 

A little later, the following named persons settled in this, 
the south-east part of the township : Dr. John Thomas, on 
the south line, where his grandson, Henry W. Thomas re- 
sides ; the land first settled by Isaac Hiatt, as above stated. 
Edward Barton, on land now owned by Wm. Barton. John 
Xicholson also owned, and sold to Wm. Webster, the land 
now owned by Wm. E. Barton. Charles Teas, from Dela- 
ware, settled on the land now owned by John Townscnd. John 
Zimmerman, from Pa., on state line, now owned by Edward 
Starbuck,Jun., and William Strawbridge. Benjamin Elliott, 
]Sr. C, where Abraham W., his son, resides ; lived there until 
his death. James AVickersham, on the quarter now owned 
by W. Kewbern, S. Williams, and J. Dutfee ; John White, 
on part of section 2, now owned by John K. Smith and 
Joseph P. Addleman. 

In the south-west part of the township John P. Thomas set- 
tled, where his sons, John, George, and Henry now own, on 
the south line. Jonathan Grave, from Delaware, on land now 
owned by H. G. Nickle; Wm. Starbuck, N". C, where Joshua 
Jeffries lives; Benj. Harris, IST. C, where Daniel C. Eich lives; 
Paul Swain, N". C, where D. Taylor owns; Meshech Llew- 
ellyn, afterward Wm. Starbuck, where Joshua Elliott lives; 
Elijah MiHidin, the quarter now owned by John M. Brown and 
James V. Marshall ; Edward B. Hunt, iST. C, on the quarter 
since ow^ned by N. S., William, and Jesse Hunt ; John Yenard, 
where S. Smith lives; Joseph Brown, Pa., where he still re- 
sides; John Simmons and Thomas Fisher, IST. C, east half of 
the two east quarters of section 38, and Daniel Fisher the west 
half of said quarters, the latter now owned by James Perry, of 
Kichmond; Micajah Jones, N. C, the south-west quarter of 
section 33, now owned by Elihu Hunt. 

The progress of settlement northward was materially retarded 
by apprehensions of danger from the Indians, until after the 
close of the war of 1812. Job Elliott, N. C, in 1815 settled 
half a mile south of the present town of Whitewater, where 
F. Fonts lately lived, now Josiah White. Stephen Elliott on 
quarter adjoining town. Wm. Hunt, N. C, on the east side of 



FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. 213 

town ; land afterward sold to John Untliank, and next to John 
White; now owned principally hy Handy D. Bowen. Henry 
ISTewton, from England, where John Pyle lives on state line. 
Jonathan Commons on state line, where David Stidham lives. 
Thomas Mason, from N. C, in 1816, near town, on the quarter 
now owned by Wm. Addleman and Joseph S. "Wood. In 1818 
Samuel Williams, from N. C, near town, on land now owned 
by James K. Dugdale and Peter T. Parris. Henry Garrett, 
]Sr. C.,land now owned by James Garrett, Hiram Supplee, and 
Barnabas Barton. Benj. Parker, from N. C, and Joseph Skin- 
ner, on the quarter now owned by John Powell and Joseph 
Draher. Elihu Hunt, N. C, a mile north-east of town, where 
Jonathan Williams lives. Richard Bunch on land now owned 
by Stephen Bunnell. Thomas Mason, Jun., three-fourths of a 
mile north of town, on the quarter owned by Jesse Hunt, Wm. 
Worden, and Wm. D. Kemp. E"athan Jones, from N. C, en- 
tered the land now owned by Calvin C. Hunt and Peter Blose. 
Gabriel Ilarrell, from N. C, half a mile soutli-west of town, on 
the quarter now owned by Henry Albright and others. 

In the it:est part of the township, Wm. Hunt (not the Wm. 
Hunt who settled near town,) settled where Elijah Roberts lives. 
George Blose, of Ohio, where Wm. Hunt now lives. Andrew 
Starbuck, from N. C, on the land now owned by John T. 
Voorhees, on New Garden line ; first settler probably Daniel 
Bucket, a Friend preacher. Joshua Brown, from Pa., on land 
now owned by Joseph C. Graves. Isaac Pyle, on the north- 
west quarter of section 27, now owned by Elias Chenewith and 
Hugh Stevenson. Isaac Pyle resides on a part of section 22, 
formerly owned by Andrew Starbuck. Edward Fisher, from 
]Sr. C, near west line, where he yet lives. Charles Thomas, 
from N. C, son of Stephen Thomas, where Jonathan Marine 
resides. James White, on west hue, where he still resides. 
Lemuel Chance, from N. C, where Isaac Thomas lives, on sec- 
tion 16. Wm. Fulghum, from IT. C, settled and owned land 
where he and his son, Levi G., reside. 

Wm. Addleman, from Penn., in February, 1810, settled a mile 
and a half north-west from town. The second tree cut on his 
farm measured 7 feet and 7 inches across the stump, and its 



214 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

length to the lowest limb was 77 feet 7 inches. The hotly of 
the fallen tree formed one side of the camp bnilt against it, in 
which he lived with six children for several months before his 
cabin was built, his wife having died before his removal. John 
, M. Addleman settled where S. 1). Wallingford lives, 1^ miles 
north of town. Wm. B. Kemp, from Md., where Henderson 
Kemp lives, near town. Joseph P. Addleman, where Wm. 
Hill lives. Nathan White, on the land now owned by Wm. 
Gr. and Joseph White, IJ miles north of town. James White, 
from S. C, after a few years' residence near Middleboro, settled 
on the south half of section 13, IJ miles north from town, 
where he still resides. [See Sketch.] ISTathan Elliott, JST. C, 
settled on land now owned by ISTathan White. Robert Star- 
buck, from !N". C, where Whitmell Hill resides. Cornelius 
Yaunuys, where he now lives. He was an early blacksmith. 

In 1817, James Harlin, from Kentucky, with a large family 
of children, whose names were Valentine, Elihu, Joshua, John, 
(who never lived here,) Jacob, ISTathan, James, Edith, Polly, 
Anna. The father, with Jacob, Nathan, and James, settled 
near the township, in Darke count}^ Ohio. The other 
brothers, in 1817, commenced a settlement, known as the 
"Harlin settlement," now Bethel. John, Nathan,, and James 
reside in Iowa. Nathan Elliott, who settled" in 1816, where 
James White now resides, also removed to this settlement in 
1817. John Thompson and five sons of Nathan Anderson, 
John, Joseph, David, Nathan, and Wm. H., settled in the 
vicinity about the same time. The friends of these settlers 
constitute a large proportion of the inhabitants of the north- 
east part of the township ; the Anderson families numbering 
some ten or twelve. 

In the north-west part of the township, Jesse Overman set- 
tled where Josiah Haisley resides, on land adjoining the north 
line. Wm. Nixon, where Peter H. Wright resides. Samuel 
Henderson, where Nathan Edgerton lives. Thomas Simons on 
land now owned by Jesse Outland. 

Paul Swain, Wm. Simmons, Thomas Roberts, Daniel 
Fisher, Nathan and Henry Hunt, who settled in the south- 
west part of the township, assisted in opening the road called 
the " Quaker trace," from Richmond to Fort Wayne. Edward 



FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. 215 

Fisher and Ann, wife of Henry Blose, are the only children of 
these famihes now living in the township. Also, Abraham 
Ashley and Enos Grave, both of Wayne township, belonged 
to the party. Grave was surveyor of the trace. 

A Saw-mill is said to have been built in the south-west cor- 
ner of the township, by Wnn. Starbuck, about 1817, and was 
owned at different times by several persons. A saw-mill was 
built on Middle Fork by Henry !N"ewton and John Unthank, 
about the year 1825 ; another afterward by John White, three- 
fourths of a mile north of Newton's; and another by James 
White, three-fourths of a mile still further north, which run 
about 35 years, having been once rebuilt. John Nicholson and 
Isaac Commons built a saw-mill in the south-east corner of the 
township, which is now owned by Abraham B. Elliott. A 
steam, saw-mill^ built in the north-west corner of the township, 
owned by Peter H. Wright, was destroyed by tire a few years 
ago. 

In 1829, Valentine Harlan built a Grist-mill above James 
White's saw-mill. In 1837, William Addleman, Jun., and 
Stephen Elliott built, three-fourths of a mile north of White- 
water, a grist-mill which run about twenty years. 

The iirst 3Ierchant in Whitewater is said to have been John 
Price. After two or three years he sold the goods to Stephen. 
Elliott, who was on the south-west corner, and by whom the 
house had been built. Thomas Morton, of Miami, Ohio, had a 
store in the north-east corner about two years, and built on the 
corner where Joseph A. Bowen now trades. Elliott sold his 
goods to John II. Bruce and Jonathan D. Gray. Wm. B. 
Schenck was here at least as early as 1839, and as late as 1844. 
T. J. Ferguson & Co., in 1844. At Bethel, Wm. McFarland 
appears to have been the first merchant in 1845, on the north- 
east corner, where are now a grocery and a tavern, kept by 
JSTathan Harlan, and traded several years. Edward Osborn, of 
Newport, soon after established a store, kept by Joseph Un- 
tlumk. There were afterward, at different times, John A. 
Untliank, Walker Yeatnian, Jesse Richards, Jacob & Howard 
Harlan, Morgan & Henderson. Present merchants — Martin 
Wiley, dry goods; Nathan Harlan, grocer. Present mer- 
chants at Whitewater — Joseph A. Bowen, north-west corner; 



216 HISTORY OP WAYNE COUNTY. 

Benj. W. Addleman, south-east corner. Grocer — Wm. 13. 
liobinson, south-west corner. 

The first Physician was John Thomas, in the south part of 
the township, where his grandson, Henrj^ W, Thomas, now re- 
sides. He had an extensive practice, there being no other 
physician near. He carried his Inedicine in a bladder, instead 
of the ordinary saddle-bag. At Whitewater, afterward, were 
John H. Bruce, Azel Owens, Richard G. Brandon, Robert 
Hamilton, Wm. Williams, Wni. Commons, Robert Fisher, 
Harlan Harrison, now residing in Union. Dr. Thomas T. 
Courtney, after an absence of several years, returned to White- 
water, and died early in 1871. Present physicians — J. E. 
Beverly, J. B. Stevenson, W. P. Griflis. 

The earliest Religious Society in the township was that of the 
Friends, who built a log meeting-house two miles south of 
Whitewater, near the site of the present brick house on the 
turnpike. Isaac Commons, Job Elliott, Wra. Hunt, Joseph 
Ashton, John jSTicholson, Jeremiah Cox, Jun., and Luther 
Tillson, were early members. 

The Christian Church at Bethel was formed in August, 1821, 
under the ministration of John M. Foster. Meetings were first 
lield in the dwelling of Valentine Harlan, afterward in a 
school-house; next, in a large log meeting-house half a mile 
east of Bethel, where the grave-yard is, until the present house 
in Bethel was built, Since the pastorate of Mr. Foster this 
church has enjoyed the ministerial services of Valentine Har- 
lan, 2d., Eli Harlan, Hosea C. Tillson, Joseph G. Harlan, 
Hardin Harrison, and Henry Polly, now residing at Union. 

The Episcopal Methodists organized a church near Jesse 
Hunt's, in the south-west part of the township, about the year 
1830. Edward Starbuck, Hugh Stevenson, Joseph Hender- 
son, and Joseph Whitacre were early members. The organiza- 
tion was given up about six years ago. 

A Methodist Episcopal Church was formed at Whitewater 
about 1831 or 1832. Among its early members were William 
Boawell, Thomas K. Peeples, Wm. Brown, and their families, 
and Margaret Addleman. It was in the Centerville and Will- 
iamsburg Circuits. The congregation at first met in a log 
house near Avhere the present house w^as built in 1851. 



FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. 217 

The Wesley an 3Iethodists organized a chiircli about 1854, and 
built their present house of worship near the site of the old 
house of the Episcopal Methodists. Early members were Ed- 
ward Starbuck, and Edward, his son, Jacob and M 

Brown, Elijah Roberts, Elias Cheneweth, Ambrose Roberts, 
with the families of most of them. Edward Starbuck, Jun., 
was a local preacher. Among their preachers have been John 
W. Johnson and Daniel Worth. 

A Christian Church at Whitewater was formed in 1867. 
Early members were James M. Gist, Jesse T. Hunt, Wni. R. 
Winsor, Henry W. Thomas, Wm. L. Robinson, and their 
wives, Sally White, Aleda Harney, Milesia Addleman. Their 
permanent place of worship is the lower story of the Academy 
building. Their preachers have been Mr. Buff", who had 
preached before the organization, Wm. D. Moore, and their 
present preachers, Joseph G. Harlan and Edward Fenton. 

The Academy was built by a stock company, styled Frank- 
lin Township Academical Association, m or about the year 1859. 
The school is still continued. A select school was kept a year 
or longer by Milton IloUingsworth before the Academy was 
built. 

The Town of Hillsborough was laid off by Stephen Elliott 
and John White, proprietors. The description and survey of 
the plat was acknowledged and received for record JN'ovem- 
ber 11, 1828. An addition made by Stephen Elliott is dated 
September 8, 1832. The name of the town was, a few years 
ago, changed to Whitewater. 

The Town of Bethel was laid out April 6, 1850; Elihu Har- 
lan and Joseph Anderson, proprietors. 

Biographical and Genealogiccd. 

John M. Addleman was born in Chester county, Pennsylva- 
nia, April 14, 1790 ; married November 24, 1813,, Sarah Whit- 
aker, who was born February 17, 1796. He settled, in 1826, 
in Franklin township. He was elected in 1829 or 1830 a jus- 
tice of the peace. He had fourteen children, of whom eight 
were married : 1. Ann 31aria Margaret was married to AVm. 
Kemp; 2. Joseph P., to Catharine Towusend; 3. John C*., lirst 
16 



218 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

to Nancy 1^. Wood ; second, to Mary Eliza Dnlin ; 4. James 
B., to Hannah Morton, and died about 1850; 5. William S., 
first, to Judith Townsend ; second, to Ellen Townsend ; 6. 
Sa7'ah J.?^?^, to Henry IT. Eeed ; 7. Benj. Tf., first, to Martha 
Kemp; second, to MeHssa Addleman; 8. George F.,io Martlia 
J. Broderick. He served in the late war. 31ilton W., the 
eldest, was killed by lightning. Five died in childhood and 
infancy. 

William Addleman, from Chester connt3^, Pennsylvania, 
settled in Franklin township in 1819, a mile and a half north- 
west of Whitewater, as elsewhere stated. [See Franklin 
Township.] His father, John Michael Addleman, was born in 
Germany, December 15, 1723, and emigrated to America in 
1752. He was married on the vessel during his passage, and 
settled in Chester county, Pennsylvania. William, his son, 
was born there in October, 1758, and married Mary Henuix, 
December 6, 1790. He had eight children, all married, as fol- 
lows : 1. Mary married Joseph Oglesby in Penn.s3'lvania; set- 
tled in this township; removed to Ohio, and died in that state. 

2. John married McLease, and in a few years returned to 

Pennsylvania. Both are dead. 3. Margaret married Nathan 
Grave, an early settler in Wayne township. 4. Eliza mar- 
ried Elias Ogan,an early settler. She died here; he in Somer- 
set, Wabash county. 6. William married Mary, daughter of 
Job Elliott, and had six sons and two daughters. Three sons 
were in Col. Meredith's regiment, in the late war. Joseph O., 
who died in the battle of Antietam; Jacob 0,, who returned 
from the army sick, and died in nine days ; and John, who, on 
account of sickness, was furloughed home. He re-enlisted, 
fought in the battle of the Wilderness, and in August, 1864, was 
discharged for physical disability. William 0., another son, 
enlisted in the 147th Regiment in February, 1865, and served 
until after the close of the war. 7. Hannah married Robert 
Starbuck, removed to Ridgeville, where she died, and where 
he still resides. 8. Jacob married Mahala Starbuck, and died in 
1864. Three sons, John, Andrew, and Flavius, were in the 
war. John was killed in the battle of Kenesaw Mountain. 
died of sickness at Washington City. 

Benjamin Harris, from North Carolina, settled, in 1807, 



FKANKLIN TOWNSHIP. 219 

about six miles north from Richmond, and four miles south- 
east from jSTewport, in the south-west part of the present 
township of Franklin. He was a son of Obadiah Harris, Sen., 
elsewhere noticed. He died about the year 1850, on the farm 
on which he first settled. He had fifteen children, thirteen of 
whom attained to the age of majority, and were married : 1. 
Obadiah, who married Sarah, daughter of John Lewis, of 
Green, and settled on Green's Fork, near Williamsburg, now 
resides near Indianapolis. 2. Pleasant, who married Hannah 
Massey, and settled in New Garden; afterward on Kettle 
Creek, near Dalton. He has since lived at South Bend, and 
last in Iowa, where he died. 3. James, who married Naomi, a 
daughter of John Lewis, and settled on Green's Fork, where 
he died. 4. Beersheba, who married Job Coggeshall, and set- 
tled near Newport, where she died. He resides at WiUiams- 
burg. 5. John, who married Nancy Harvey; settled in Cen- 
ter ; removed thence to near Newcastle ; thence to Iowa, 
where he died. 6. Benjamin, who married Lydia Hiatt, lived 
on his farm three years, and then settled near Williamsburg, 
where he lived until 1868, and now resides a mile from Kicli- 
mond. Mrs. H. died in July, 1867; and he married iu April, 
1870, Hannah Ann Estell. 7. Rebecca, who married Henry 
Dutterow, and settled in Franklin township. 8. Sarah, who 
married John Catey, of Green. 9. iMarcjaret, who married 
John Gardner, and lives in Oregon, w^here he died. 10. David, 
who married in Illinois, and died there. 11. Aaron, who mar- 
ried Martha, daughter of Richard Lewis, and resides in Hunt- 
ington county. 12. Elizabeth, who married Seth Gardner, and 
lives near Arba. 13. Nathan, who married, first, Hannah 
Thompson ; second, Mrs. Edith Anderson, and resides at Union 
City. 

Obadiah Harris, from North Carolina, father of Benjamin, 
came several years later than his soii, and still later, Obadiah, 
another son. They settled in New Garden, a mile south from 
Newport, whence they removed to Randolph county. Both 
father and son were preachers iu the Society of Friends. 

Luther Tillson was born eight miles from Plymouth, Mas- 
sachusetts, in 1766. He removed to Vermont, where he was 
married, and in 1802 removed with his family to Ohio, laud- 



220 HISTORY OF \7AYNE COUNTY. 

ing with a company of emigrants at Cincinnati on Christmas 
eve. He bought land and settled in Butler county. In 1817, 
he removed to Darke county, Ohio, near Franklin township 
in Wayne county, Indiana, where some of the family afterward 
settled. He had nine children, seven sons and two daughters. 
All had families except the youngest, a son. Only two are 
living, Isaiah and Hosea C, who reside at Bethel. Both 
united at an early age with the Christian Church at Bethel, of 
which both are elders. Hosea has been a minister for many 
years. 

James White, son of James White, was born in ISTelson 
county, Kentucky, June 9, 1792. In 1800, he removed with 
his father's family to Butler county, Ohio, where, eighteen 
months after, his father died. About the year 1810 or 1811 
he came with the family to this county, and settled at or near 
where Middleboro' now is. He was married September 20, 
1814, to Jane Boswell, a daughter of Barnabas Boswell, born 
August 24, 1794. In 1.818, he settled in New Garden, now 
Franklin township, about a mile and a half north-east from 
Whitewater, where he has resided until the present time. He 
had a large share of the experience of pioneer life. About the 
year 1826 he was elected a justice of the peace for the term of 
live years, and re-elected for a second term of five years; and 
after an interval of one term, was elected for a third term of 
five years. He also held the office of notary public by ap- 
pointment from Gov. Willard and Gov. Wright. He had 
twelve children, all married, as follows: 1. Malinda, to James 
Garrett, and died in the towmship. He resides at Hagerstown. 
2. Lucinda, to Peter Ellis, and resides at Whitewater. 3. 
Eleam, to Susan Curliner, and resides in the township. 4. 
Israel, to Nancy Oten. 5. Tabitha, to Augustus Bunch, and 
died at Whitewater. He removed to Tennessee. 6. James, 
to Anna Wright. 7. John, first to Sallj' Hubbard ; second, to 
Jane Tillson, and died in 1829. 8. Joseph married Esther Ad- 
dleman. 9. Nathan married Anna Harrison. 10. William, 
to Salina Vannuys. 11. Daniel, to Martha Wright. 12. 
Jonathan, to Eliza Guess. Those living, whose residence is not 
mentioned, reside in the township. 

The brothers and sisters of James White, above referred to, 



GREEN TOWNSHIP. 221 

were: 1. Jllav]/, wlio niarriod ISfilton Ashl)_y, who died of dis- 
ease in the war of 1812. She died in 1814, loavini;^ two chil- 
dren, one of whom, Lavinia, married "Wm. Anstin, now resid- 
mg at "Winchester. 2. John, who settled near his brotlicr 
James, married Delilah Boswell, and died in 1835. 3. Eliza- 
beth, who married Abner Clavvson ; both dead. 4. Joseph, who 
married Alice Clawson, settled in Wayne township, and died 
December 26,1868. They had six sons and fonr daughters; 
two daughters deceased. 5. JScithan, who married, first, Eliza- 
beth Cook, and had a son, James C, Avho was killed in the 
battle of Kenesaw Mountain ; second, Susan Cox, by whom 
he had five sons and three daughters. 6. Seirah, tvho married 
Thomas Gray, and settled on the state line, Ohio side. 



GREEN TOWNSHIP. 

The township of Green was formed in August, 1821, from 
Perry and other townships. It contains an area of about 30 
square miles. The principal stream in the townshij) is Green's. 
Fork, which passes through it diagonally from (he north-east 
corner in a south-westerly direction. It derives its name from 
a famed Indian, John Green, well known to many old settlers 
still living, and whose name occurs in several places in our 
history. 

John Lewis, from North Carolina, in the 3'ear 1810, settled 
with his family half a mile south of the site of tlie present 
town of Williamsburg, on the farm on which his son Joseph 
now resides. He was accompanied by his eldest son Richard, 
then past the age of majority. These were the first settlers in 
the township. 

The following are believed to have settled in 1811: Henry 
Way, 1 J miles north-east of town, where Charles B. Ballenger re- 
sides. kSeth Way, on the present farm of Jesse Gates. Joseph 
Prator, Thomas Cranor, and Wm. Johnson, near the town. 
Joshua Cranor, where his son Milo now lives, about a mile 
south-east from towm ; and Reuben Joy, 2 miles north-east 
from town ; land now owned by Jesse Reynolds. 

In 1814, John (Jreen, from N. C, settled 2 miles north of 



222 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

town on the farm now owned by Joseplius 1). Lacld, and was 
accompanied by Joseph Ladd and his son William. J. Ladd 
settled on the farm lately owned by Samuel Johnson, now by 
Martin Ballenger. In 1816, also from N. C, came Abel Lo- 
max, who settled on land now owned by James Frazers heirs; 
Elijah Wright, where Alexander Wright lives ; Jeremiah 
Stegall,on land now owned by Alexander Stegall; Wm. Cook, 
with his sons, Cornelius and James, about 4 miles north-west 
from town ; land now owned by his heirs and descendants. 

In 1814, Benj. Hutchins, from IST. C, settled where now 
Wm. McLucas lives, 1| miles north from town ; and Thomas, 
on land now owned by Job Coggesball, a mile north from 
town. Benj. Hutchins afterward removed to the farm where 
he now resides, near the United Brethren meeting-house. 
John Hutchins settled a mile north-west from town, where 
James M. Cranor resides. Henry Study, a native of Mary- 
land, in 1818, a mile west of town, where his son John resides. 
Mr. Study is said to have had the first iron mold-board plow 
in Wayne county. 

The following named j^ersons were generally the first 
settlers on the lands they owned, but the years in wiiich 
most of them settled have not been ascertained : 

In the south-east part of the township, Joseph Comer, wdiere 
now Joseph Comer, his son, resides ; Joseph Palmer, where 
Daniel Palmer resides; Henry Gower, and James Irwin; 
first settler on their lands not ascertained ; Thomas Teagle, 
where now a son resides. Joseph Evans, from IST. J., entered 
several quarter sections, now and lately owned in part by 
Mark Evans, Joseph Lewis, Abner Ciawson, and John Bean. 
John Catey, from JST. J., also several quarter sections, por- 
tions of which, east of the turnpike, he still owns. Joseph 
Personett, from Md., settled on land now owned by Benj. 
F. Beverlin. Wm. Beverlin, from Va., settled as early, 
probably, as 1812, on land now owned by his son Thomas, 
and John Catey, where the latter now resides. Jesse 
Bacon, from N. J., on land formerly owned l)y Benj. Harris. 
Henry Catey, from IST. J., where Samuel Catey resides, IJ 
miles south-east from town. Thomas Bond, south line of 
township, land now owned by his heirs. 



GREEN TOWNSHIP. 223 

In tlie south part of tlio townsliip, Aiitliony Chamness, from 
iS". C, settled where his sou Joshua resides. Drury Davis 
lives on laud formerly owned by Stacy B. Catey. Jesse 
Young, on land now owned by Isaac Ilensliaw, Avho lives in 
town. Samuel Ball, wliere now Benj. Thorn resides. Enos 
Veal, from N. J., where he still lives. Allen M. Harris, first 
proprietors not ascertained. Charles Spencer, on land for- 
merly owned by Orr Scoville. Richard Lewis, where ISTathan I. 
Bond lives. Benj. Satterthwaite, on land now owned by 
Jonathan Mulliu. 

In the west fart of the township, John Cain settled where 
he now resides. Henry Oler, where his sou Henry resides. 
Luke Dillon settled on land where Thomas Crauor lives. 
Joshua Ballenger had other parts of the section, now owned 
by Jacob Ballenger and Larkin Bond. Benj. Ballenger 
north part cf the section, now owned by Jacob Ballenger. 
Amos W. Ladd, afterward Thomas Oler, who also owns 
land one mile north, settled where he now resides. Henry, 
Joseph, David, and Isaac Study, sons of Henry, Sen., where 
they first settled. Elliott, on land now owned by S. Elliott. 
Nathan Riley, from Ohio, where Thomas Judd resides. 
Lorenzo King, lately L. Culbertsou. 

In the north-west part of the township, John Beard, from 
Md., on township line, on land previously owned by John 
Shelly. Jes?e Baldwin,, from ]S^. C, on land now owned by 
his sou Eli Baldwin and Isaac Y. King. Section 23, owned 
by Ephraim and T. J. Cates, George W. Scantland, and Peter 
Ilardwick, first proprietors not known. Washington Crauor 
settled where he still lives. John St. Myers, where his sons 
reside. Wm. Ladd, on land now or lately owned by Frank 
Beverliu, Joseph Personett, and Thomas Judd. 

Ephraim Cates resides IJ miles west from Williamsburg, 
and owns several farms in the township. 

In the east part of the township, George Johnson, son of 
William, settled on land now owned by Thomas Edwards. 
Levi Jcssup, 2 m. south-east of town, on land now owned in part 
by Elisha and Samuel Pitts, and Jonathan Ilaisley. Joshua 
Murphy, from ]N". C, where Harvey Harris now lives. Jacob 



224 HISTOllY OP WAYNE COUNTY. 

Cook, an early settler from Ohio, a native of IST. C, on laud 
now owned by Ezekiel Johnson and George Brittain. 

In the north-east part, Daniel Charles, about 1816, settled 
where he still lives; land now owned by Henry Charles and 
Hannah Blair. "VVm. Trotter and Hugh L. Macy settled 
where they still live. Isaiah Case, on lands now owned b; 
S. Mitchell Boyd and Wyatt Green. Paul Way, from N. C, 
where now Joseph Way lives. Jeremiah Thorp, from Tenn., 
where he now lives. Eleazer Smith, from N. C, where now 
his son, Wm. D. Smith resides. Valentine Pegg, from IsT, C, 
where he still resides. John Pegg, from IsT. C, on land now 
owned by his son John. William Clemens, where he now 
resides, not an early settler. 

Hartman Eigenbrot, a native of Germany, came from Penn. 
to Richmond in 1835, and three years thereafter to where he 
now lives, 2 miles south-east from Williamsburg. William 
Sharp, from Ireland, in 1854, settled in Pichmond, and en- 
gaged in the starch manufacture ; sold out in 1862, and in 
1870, removed from Ohio, to where he now lives, 2 miles 
south from town. Jonathan Mullen, from Ohio in 1827, 
settled in 1854 where he now resides, IJ miles south from 
town. Henry Catey, a native of Germany, from New Jersey 
in 1821, settled 1| miles south-east from town, where he re- 
sided until his death in 1850, aged about 80 years. John, his 
son, now lives IJ miles south of town. 

Charles Spencer, a native of Conn., from Penn., in 1819, 
settled where he now resides, 1 J miles south of town. He is 
said to have made, in 1820, the first pegged shoes ever made 
in Wayne county, and, in 1821, the first iron mold-board plow. 

The first School in the township was kept by Richard Lewis 
in a log house on his father's farm. 

The first Blacksmiths in the township w^ere Wm. Underbill, 
below town, and Joseph Way, 1| miles north-east from the 
town. Also, Ilanan Roberts and Moses Davidson were early 
blacksmiths. The present blacksmiths are Elias and John 
Roberts, and two sons of Wm. Richter. 

The first Wagon-maker was Wm. Richter, who still con- 
tinues the business. He was a son-in-law of Richard Lewis, 



GREEN TOWNSHIP. 225 

son of John Lewis. Reynolds carries on the carriage-making 
business. 

Wm. Johnson built the first Grist-mill about the year 1818, 
where the present mill in Williamsburg stands. A year or 
two later, Stacy B. Catey built a saiv-mill 1 J miles below town, 
^vhere also a grist-mill was built. About the same time 
Reuben Joy built a saw-mill IJ miles above town ; and a few 
years after Hugh Johnson built a grist-mill; both are now 
owned by Jesse Reynolds, 

The first Merchant in Williamsburg was [name lost], who 
commenced trade about the year 1831 ; prior to which time 
the inhabitants were supplied at Richmond. Of those who 
have since traded for longer or shorter periods, were John 
Pennington, Joshua and Thomas Cranor, Stephen and Samuel 
Johnson, Stephen Coflin, eight or ten years in the firms of 
B. & S. Cofian and Andrew Purviance & Co., Pleasant Un- 
thank and Griflin Davis, afterward Davis alone. Present 
Merchants — Griflin Davis, Pierce Brothers, [James and 
Asher,] and William Campbell. 

Dr. Curtis Otwell was the first resident Physician, the in- 
habitants having been previously served chiefly by Drs. 
Warner and Kerl, of Richmond, Waldo, of Jacksouburg, and 
Way, of iJ^ewport. After Otwell, George Blair, Linus P. 
Taylor, and John T» Chenoweth. The last two are the 
present practicing physicians. 

Richard Lewis is said to have been the first Justice of the 
Peace. Other early justices were Barnabas McManus, Joseph 
Ladd, John Green, Joseph Lewis, Samuel Johnson. Ezekiel 
Johnson and Winston E. Harris are at present justices. 

Abel Lomax served two or more years as representative, and 
a term of two years as senator in the legislature ; and Joseph 
Lewis as a representative, at the session of 1845-6, 

The Baptists probably formed the first church in the town- 
ship, which was organized Xov. 21, 1818, about 3 miles north 
of town. Among the first members and those who joined 
soon after, were Isaiah Case, Benj. Jones, Eleazer Smith, and 
their wives, James ^Martin, Hannah Case, Polly McQuary, 
Jeremiah Swafibrd, Sarah and Rebecca Potter, David Frazer, 
Margaret Shoemaker, Nathaniel Case and John Stigleman 
17 



226 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

and tlieir wives. Rev. Wm. Oldham, from Salem church, 

Rev. Martin, from Elkhorn, and others, officiated at the 

organization. In June, 1819, Benj. Jones and i^athaniel Case 
were ordained deacons. In December, 1819, Rev. Isaac 
Cotton became their minister, and continued his pastoral 
labors about twenty years. He was succeeded by ISTathaniel 
Case about six years, and Andrew Baker some ten or twelve 
years. Henry Rupe, Mr. L^^ons, and others have supplied 
the church at different times. Meetings were first held in a 
log house. A frame meeting-house was built about 1830, 
3 miles from Williamsburg, and about twelve years ago a 
brick one, near the same place. 

A Methodist Ejnseopal Church and society was formed about 
the 3^ear 1820, perhaps earlier. Among its first members were 
Abel Loniax, Henry Study, Joshua Ballenger, Nathan Riley, 
and their wives. Their first was a log meeting-house, where 
the house of the United Brethren now stands, about half a 
mile west from town. A brick house was afterward built in 
its place. In 1851, their present house in town was built. 
Their preachers have been Joseph Tarkiugton, Miltideus Mil- 
ler, John Kiger, John Burt, Mr. Morrison, Caldwell Robbins, 
John Metzker, Benj. Smith, Asahel Kinnan, J^er Phillips, 
George Newton, Abraham Gorreil, Lewis Roberts, John F. 
Pierce. 

The Friends formed a society a few j'ears later, and built a 
log house about 3J miles north-east from town. After an ex- 
istence of about fifteen years, the society was discontinued, a 
part of its members going to Newport, and a part to Cherry 
Grove. 

A l^^rt and Block-house were built during the war of 1812, 
on the farm of John Lewis, by John, Joseph, and Richard 
Lewis, Joshua and Thomas Cranor, Seth Way, and others. 
About three miles north-east from this, another, on land now 
owned by Thompson Smith, was built by William Whitehead 
and others, and called the "Whitehead block-house." 

An Odd Felloivs Lodge, the Chinkarorer, No. 120, was insti- 
tuted Nov. 25, 1852, on application of Wm. Silver, Wm. 
Brown, James H. Stanley, 1). Dinwiddle, and Abel Evans. 
Its officers were, Wm. Silver, N. G. ; James H. Stanley, V. G. ; 



GREEN TOWNSHIP. 227 

James Smith, Rec. Sec; Sylvester Hollister, Treas. Present 
officers — Samuel Catey, N, G. ; Danley Palmer, V. G. ; Addi- 
son C. Reynolds, Rec. Sec; Barzillai H, Reynolds, Per. Sec; 
Joseph D, Cranor, Treasurer. 

The United Brethren organized a church about the year 1845. 
After a few months preaching, a class was formed, of which 
the following named persons are believed to have been mem- 
bers: James Jester and Lucretia, his wife, JBenj. Harris and 
Lydia, his wife, Samuel Johnson and Catharine, his wife, 
Herbert C. Pierce and Margaret, his wife, Susanna Cranor, 
James and Phebe Stevenson. Their first meetings were held 
in private rooms in Williamsburg, afterward in a school-house, 
I mile east of town. Their present house, about half a mile 
north-east from town, was built about the year 1855. Their 
first preacher was Isaac Robinson, who was succeeded by Wm. 
Ault, Wm. Kendrick, Robert Morris, and their present minis- 
ter, Thomas Evans. Persons belonging to secret societies are 
not admitted to membership. 

The Town of Williamsburg was laid out by "William John- 
son, proprietor; John Frazer, surveyor, March 16, 1830; and 
recorded March 23, 1830. 

Biographical and Genealogical. 

Samuel K. Boyd, son of Samuel Boyd, an early settler in 
Harrison, was born in Kentucky, June 29, 1791, and removed 
with his father to that township in 1811. He was married, in 
1817, to Martha Lewis, daughter of John Lewis, of Green, and 
settled 1^ miles north-east from Williamsburg, where he lived 
until his removal to Centerville, a few years ago, where he now 
resides. He had by this wife five daughters: 1. Priscilla, 
who married James Clemens, and resides at Linnville, Ran- 
dolph Co. 2. Narcissa, who married John Charaness, of Will- 
iamsburg, and is deceased. 3. Sarah Ann, who married 
Joseph Lomax, a lawyer at Kalamazoo, Mich. 4. Emlina, 
who married William A. Peelle, Centerville. 5. Martha, wife 
of AVinston W. Harris, and resides at Somerset, Wabash Co. 
After the death of his wife, Mr. Boyd was married, in 1828, 
to Bethany Ladd, by whom he had ten children, five sons and 
five daughters, of whom six were married: 1. Isabellay to 



228 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Thomas Fagan, of Williamsburg. 2. William L., to Rebecca 
Martin ; resides at Chester. 3. Catharine, to William Good- 
rich, and resides at Dunkirk, Jay Co. 4. 3Iary, who married 
John Keever, of New Garden, where she died in 1861. 5, 6. 
Bethany and Samuel K., unmarried. Of the other four, James, 
John, and Amanda died young; and Joseph L., in 1865, the 
day of his discharge from the United States army, in Texas. 

Frederic Dean was born in North Carolina, July 9, 1800, 
where he was married to Polly Brooks, who was born in 1802. 
In 1831, they removed to Wayne county, and settled in wiiat 
is now Clay township, 2 J miles west of Washington. Mr. 
Dean died Jan. 5, 1840, leaving four children, all of whom lived 
to be married, as follows: 1. Elizabeth Jane, who was mar- 
ried to George Avery, and after his death to David Fowler. 

2. Jesse B.,to Martha, daughter of John Green; 3. Luzetta, 
to Caleb C. Mendeuhall, who died in 1867 ; 4. John L., to Car- 
oline Lamb, of Perry, where Mrs. Mendenhall also resides. 

John Green was born in North Carolina, Feb. 9, 1795, and 
w^as married Oct. 13, 1814, to Judith Ladd, who was born Dec. 
5, 1794. In the fall of 1814, he removed to Wayne county, 
and settled on the farm now owned by Josephus D. Ladd, about 
2 m. north of Wilhamsburg, where he resided until about the 
year 1848, when he removed about a mile east, where he lived 
until the year 1865. He was, during his residence in the 
township, highly esteemed by his fellow-citizens, and held for 
several years the office of justice of the peace ; and he was a 
member of the Baptist church. Mr. Green had eleven chil- 
dren, besides a son who died in infancy, named as follows : 
1. Catharine, who married Isaac Study, and resides in Green 
township. Mr. S. is not living. 2. Nancy, Avho married 
George W. Brittan, and removed to Iowa, where he died. 

3. William, married, and lives at Attica, Fountain Co., Ind. 

4. Cynthia Ann, who married Andrew Thomas, and died, 
leaving live or six children ; he has returned to North Caro- 
lina. 5. Patspy S., widow of Jesse B. Dean. 6. Hampton L., 
who married Mary Stanley, and.lives in Missouri. 7. Wygatt, 
who married, first, Mary Macy ; second, Margaret Macy. 8. 
Elizabeth, wife of John C. Potter. 9. Judith, who married 
Charles Garrett; removed to Missouri, where he died, and 



'i^-. 






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GREEN TOWNSHIP. 229 

where she resides. 10. Narcissa, who died at 11; and John, 
who died at 5. Mrs. Green died Sept. 20, 1858; and Dec. 27, 
1860, Mr. Green married Mrs. Polly Dean, widow of Frederic 
Dean. In 1865, he sold his farm, and removed to where he 
now resides, near liichmond. 

EzEKiEL JonNSON was born in Monmouth Co., N. J., March 
14, 1807, and was married, Oct. 16, 1828, to Mary Matthews. 
They removed to Green township in 1838, and settled 3 miles 
north-east of Williamsburg; and in 1861 he removed into the 
town, in which he still resides. He has for many years been 
a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal church, and is at 
present a justice of the peace. Their children were : Eliza- 
beth, who married David Reynolds, and died in 1852, aged 24. 
Thomas S., who married Amanda AVhitmarsh, of Michigan. 
They left in December, 1862, as missionaries to India. Maria, 
who died at 14. Charles P., who married Margaret Cady. 
Martha, who married "Wesley H. Engle, and resides in Mis- 
souri ; and three who died in childhood and infanc}'. 

John Leavis was born in Guilford Co., N. C, in the year 
1765, and was married to Sarah Ruct. In 1810, he came with 
his family to Wayne Co., Ind., and settled half a mile south of 
the present town of WilHamsburg. His eldest son, Richard, 
who had attained the age of majority, accompanied the 
family. These were the first settlers in what is now Green 
township. Hence it will be readily presumed that he had a 
thorough experience in all that pertains to pioneer life in a 
timbered country. He lived on the farm on which he first 
settled until his death. His children were : 1. Hannah, who 
married Thomas Lamb, of Green township; 2. Richard, who 
married Lavina Hall; 3. Sarah, wife of Obadiah Harris, who 
lives near Indianapolis ; 4. Naomi, who married James Harris, 
and died in the township; 5. Martha, wi^q of Samuel K. Boyd, 
died in the township ; 6. Priscilla, who married David Martin- 
dale, and died near Indianapolis; 7. Allen W.,\\\\o married 
Lucy Ilollings worth, and resides 1 mile south-west of Will- 
iamsburg. 

Joseph Lewis, son of John Lewis, was born in I^Torth Caro- 
lina, Feb. 6, 1794, and came, at the age of sixteen, with his . 
father, to Wayne county. He married Martha Boyd, who was 



230 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

born IN'ov. 27, 1800. He resides on the farm on which his father 
settled in 1810. His occupation has been that of a farmer; 
and by industry and economy has acquired a large estate. He 
taught, at an early age, the lirst school in the township. He 
has held the office of justice of the peace, and has represented 
the county in the legislature. He has had twelve children : 
1. Samuel W., who died at 10. 2. Louisa, who married 
Thomas Cranor. 3. Minerva, who married Nathan Wilson, 
and after his death, Jacob Swearingen, and lives in Henry Co. 
4. Adaline 31., unmarried. 5. John H., who married Eliza- 
beth Kelso, of Huntsville, and resides there. G. Caroline, who 
married Henry Stigleraan. 7. Clarissa, who married George H. 
Smith, and lives 6 miles south of Richmond. 8. Lorinda, yvho 
married Abner Clawson, and died in 1864. 9. JSarcissa, who 
married Isaac Jenkinson, of Fort Wayne, a lawyer, and editor 
of the Fort Wayne Gazette, and now consul at Glasgow, 
Scotland. 10, 11. Martha and Sarah, who died at 6. 12. 
Josejyhine S., who married Wm. Hunt, and lives 6 miles south 
of Richmond. 

Joseph Personett, a native of Maryland, removed from 
Hamilton Co., 0., in the winter of 1821-1822, and settled If 
miles south of Williamsburg, on the land now owned by Frank 
Beverlin, where he lived until his death, in 1864, aged 84 
years. Susannah, his wife, who was a native of Virginia, died 
several years earlier. They had a daughter and five sons: 1. 
Lavina, who married Wm. Case ; removed about 1854 to 
Wabash Co., and died there in 1868. 2. Holla, who married 
Thamer Livingston ; lived in Ohio several years ; and lives 
now in Hancock Co., lud. 3. John, who married Jane 
Clingon, and died near Troy, Ohio, in 1836. 4. William, who 
married Julia Ann Fulton ; taught school in this county 
several years; served two terms as county surveyor; removed 
to Hancock Co. about the year 1854, and died there in 1857. 
5. Joseph II., who married Therissa Jane Murray; lived on the 
homestead until 1870; now resides in the north part of this 
county. 6. Lorenzo D., who married Ann E. Ogborn ; taught 
schools about three years; was engaged in mercantile business 
about three years; studied medicine with Dr. John Pritchett 
in Centerville, from 1841 to 1844, and removed to the town of 



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HARRISON TOWNSHIP. 231 

"WashiDgton, where he has been, and is now, in the practice 
of his profession and in the mercantile business. 

Henry Study was born in Pennsylvania, near Maryland 
line, Feb. 12, 1780. In his twenty-third year he removed to 
ISTew "Windsor, Md. ; and was soon after married to Charlotte 
Cook. He removed thence to this county, and settled, in 1819, 
a mile west from Williamsburg, where he resided until his 
death, Aug. 6,1862, and where his son John now resides. His 
wife died about a year later. He was a member of the Meth- 
odist church, and was associated with other pioneers in estab- 
lishing Methodism in this section of the country. He was 
one of the few who organized the first class in the region where 
he lived, and was appointed its leader. His children were — 
1. David, who married Lydia, a daughter of Seth Way, and 
resides 2J miles north-west from Williamsburg. 2. Joseph, 
who also married a daughter of Seth Way, and lives J mile 
south of David's. 3. Louisa, who married Joseph Cranor, 
and is deceased. 4. William, who married Harriet Stegall, 
who resides IJ miles west from town. 5. Samuel, \\\\o resides 
at Hagerstown, and is a cabinet-maker. 6. Matilda, who mar- 
ried James Stanley, not now living ; she resides at Williams- 
burg. 7. Henry, who married Sarah Lomax, and resides 2 
miles .west from town. 8. Isaac, who married Catharine, 
daughter of John Green, and is deceased; the widow resides 
in town. 9. 3Iartin, who married Helen Greenstreet, and re- 
sides in Selma, Ind. 10. John, who married Nanc}' Smith, and 
lives a mile west from Williamsburg. 



HAREISON TOWNSHIP. 

This township was formed in the year 1843. Its shape is 
irregular. The distance between its eastern and Avestern 
bounds varies from 5 miles to 2 ; the distance between its 
northern and southern bounds varying from 2 to 4| miles. Its 
area is less than that of any other township in the county 
except Dalton, being only 19 square miles. Green's Fork 
crosses the eastern part of it, about a mile and a half west of 
the east line ; and the main branch of another stream crosses 



232 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

the two northernmost and the three western sections of the 
township. 

Samuel Boyd, from Tennessee, settled, in the spring of 
1811, about 2J miles north-west of the present town of Jack- 
sonburg. He was probably the first settler in the township. 
His land was that at present owned by Jacob Metzker's heirs. 
In October following, John Beard, from N. C, after a year's 
sojourn in Tennessee, and a residence of five years south of 
Hunt's settlement, within the bounds of the present county 
of Union, settled near the south-west corner of this township. 
He cut his road "a great part of the way through the wilder- 
ness, without assistance, having his family and goods with 
him, and driving his team, and his cow and calf. His farm, 
on which he resided the remainder of his life, is now owned 
by his son, Isaac 'N. Beard, who lives about a mile north-east 
from the old homestead. 

During the winter and spring of 1812, Jesse Beard, Thomas 
Ray, Wm. Irving, John McKee, Eobert Leavell, Joseph 
Worl, and others, also settled in the township. On the 
breaking out of the Indian war in the spring of 1812, a num- 
ber left, and some of them never returned. Those who 
remained built a fort, with a block-house in one corner, 
in which they gathered at night, and in the day returned 
to their homes. Most of the women and children were 
taken to the east part of the county, or to the border 
of Ohio, and stayed until the war was over. The fort was on 
the ground of Henry Brown, now owned by Benj. Clark, a 
mile west of Jacksonburgh, and was built by Samuel Boyd 
and his sons Samuel K., James, William, and Robert Boyd, 
Henry Brown, Wm. Irving, and Thomas Ray. 

The following are the names of early settlers in this town- 
ship, and of the present owners and occupants. Those named 
as early settlers, however, were not in all cases the first set- 
tlers — some of them, perhaps, were the second or third owners : 

Robert Leavell, in 1811 or 1812, settled near the present site 
of Jacksonburgh, the town being on a part of the quarter sec- 
tion, and a part of the land now owned by Henry Null. 
Jonathan Morris, on land now owned by his son Jonathan, 
and resides with his son Elias Morris. Abraham Crura, 




^''A^^^/^-6^a/tc(:>: 



HARRISON TOWNSHIP. 233 

(probably) where D. Eeisor lives. AVm. ]>rown, where Lewis 
Bond resides. Isaac Sellers, where John Kensinger lives. 
Peter Roller, on laud now owned in part by John Boyd. 
Peter Rnnyan, on land now owned by Washington "Worl's 
heirs. James "Wilcox, on land now owned by Jacob Allen. 
Samuel and Wm. Boyd, on land now owned by Joseph 
Lewis, of Green township. James Ralston and John Shank, 
on land now owned by Martin Worl. Joseph Charles, on 
land now owned by Silas Spitler. Sampson ligation, a native 
of S. C, after a sojourn in Tennessee and Kentucky, settled 
near Jacksouburgh, 1815, where Samuel (^arr resides. He 
also lived near Germantown, and moved to Dudley, Henry 
Co., in 1825. His sous, Abel and William, are at Xew Lisbon. 
Ephraim Clark, a native of Pa., came from Ky. in 1814, and 
settled on land first owned by Henry Brown, on which his 
son Benj. Clark now resides. 

James Dougherty settled a mile south of Jacksonburgh, and 
worked at farming and tailoring. His farm is now owned 
by Adam Rader. Zadok Dougherty made spinning-wheels 
in town, and afterward settled half a mile west, where his 
famil}^ now reside. George IST. Holman, from England, set- 
tled near James Dougherty; had a small farm, and was 
a shoemaker. John McKee,from Ky., settled Ih miles south- 
west of town, where he died, land now owned by heirs of 
Ebenr. Eliason. John Scott, from Ky., in 1811, settled IJ 
miles north from town, where lie died. His sous Harrison 
and John reside in the township ; John on the homestead ; 
Harrison, on a farm adjoining. Another son, Elias, died in 
tlie township. 

Thomas J. Warman settled, first, south of town, afterward 
permanently 2 miles south-west from town, where he resided 
until his death. He was a member of the first board of 
county commissioners elected under the constitution of 1816, 
and was associated with James Odell and Thomas Beard. In 
1815, Josiali Bnudy settled on Warman's first place, sold it 
afterward to Abner M. Bradbury, and removed to Rush or 
Henry Co. ; the farm now owned by Philip Binklcy. Michael 
Swope, from Pa., settled about a mile east from town, on land 
lately owned by Andrew Eliason, now by John Kepler. 



234 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Wm, Irvin settled ^ mile west from town, where John 
Mundel lives. Andrew Cunningham, on land now owned by 
the heirs of Nicholas Hipe. David Bowers, where George 
Lichty lives, in the south-west part of the township. George 
Bundy, on land now owned by Charles Boughner. Isaac 

Morris, on land lately owned by A. Boyd, now by 

Shanks. Joseph Shanks, on the land now owned by his son- 
in-law, Enos Beard, Richard L. Leeson, from Ya., in 1816, 
on the land now owned by his heirs, on Green's Fork. He 
served in the war of 1812. School section, [16] now owned 
by li. L. Leeson's heirs, 11. Hoover, Peter Kepler, and Hender- 
son Hosier. P. Kepler owns lands in sections 10 and 15. 
Lewis Hosier settled early south of school section, probably 
on the quarter owned by A. M. Hosier, J. Boyd, and A. 
Bond. Thomas Reynolds, from IST. J., now in the south-east 
corner of the township ; first settler not recollected. Isaac 
Kinley, father of Major Isaac Kinley, of Richmond, on the 
land now owned by M. Jarbow. On the south half of sec. 
10, owned by J. Beeson, P. Kepler, and S. Kitterman, first 
settlers not remembered. Daniel Huff, where now C. Huff, 
his son, lives, on the east line of the township. 

The first School is said to have been taught — probably in 
the winter of 1814-15, in a log school-house on the bank of 
Martindale's creek, IJ miles north of Jacksonburgh. It is 
supposed by others that Jonathan Kidwell kept the first 
school in a log school-house l^- miles south-west from town. 
A whole log, says Isaac K. Beard, was cut out for a window, 
and the aperture closed by his father, John Beard, who 
pasted over it numbers of the Cincinnati Gazette. 

The first Blacksmith was Joseph Rippey, li miles north of 
Jacksonburgh. 

The first Grist-mill is said to have been built as early as 
1812, by one Doane. The frame consisted of two sycamore 
trees felled across the stream. The bed stone was laid on 
these logs, and a shaft from a tub wheel passed up between 
the logs, and turned the upper stone. Four forks set into 
the ground supported the roof of split clapboards, which 
covered the millstones and hopper. Like many of the earlier 
mills, it ground only corn. Aaron Miller, about 1818, built 



HARRISON TOWNSHIP. 235 

on Martindale's creek a saw-mill, said to have been the first 
iu the township. Several years after, James Wilcox and 
Francis Brown built a saw-mill a mile and a half north of 
Jacksonbnrgh ; and another was bnilt by Jehu Jones, about 
the year 1825, a mile and a half north-west from town, in the 
place of a grist-mill burned some years before. Another saw- 
mill was built 2 miles south-west from Jacksonburgh, by 
Jonathan Morris. On Green's Fork, a mile east from town, a 
grist-mill was built about the year 1838, by Wm. McLucas, 
where a mill is still run by Henry Hoover. 

On and near Green's Fork, Jacob Hoover settled where Bee- 
son lives, and near the land owned by H. Hoover. James and 
John Boyd settled on the land now owned by Henry Hoover, 

who lives on it and owns the grist-mill. Knott, on land 

now owned by John Kepler, who also owns land adjoining. 

John HoUiday settled about 2 m. north-east from town ; the 
laud now owned by his heirs. Samuel Holliday, where now 
Rankin Baldridge resides, adjoining Jefferson and Clay town- 
ships. ISTathaniel Leonard is believed to have settled on the 
laud now owned by J. Alonzo Scott, on the north line of the 
township. David Beeson, from N. C. to "Wayne Co. in 1825, 
settled in 1830 on the place now owned by his son Jabez, in 
the south-east corner of the township. He died in 1855, aged 
61. Solomon Kitterman, from Va., in 1838, on the place where 
he now hves. Jesse Hosier was born on Green's Fork, iu this 
township, and died in 1866, aged 51. His widow resides 2J 
miles north-w^est from Centerville. 

The Town of Jacksonburgh was laid out by Robert Jjeavell. 
The survey, by Henry Bryan, was dated March 23, 1815, and 
recorded May 31, 1815. Centerville is the only town of earlier 
date in the county. Jacksonburgh was the place for holding 
elections in the township of Jackson until 1836, when it was 
changed to Cambridge. It was a central place for military 
parades, horse-racing, and somewhat signalized for fighting. 
For a few years it grew considerably. Abraham Elliott set- 
tled in the town soon after it was laid out, and kept the first 
Tavern in a log house. A Tannery was built by Josiah Brad- 
bury ; a Hat-shop was established by John Zatt ; a Pottery by 
Zachariah Gapcn ; one or more Blacksmith-shops; a shop for 



236 HISTORY OF avayne county. 

making Spinning-wheels, by Zadok Dougherty. Jonathan 
Kidwell, also, who soon settled in town, is said to have been a 
wheelwright, and for a time a preacher in the Christian 
church, and later a Universalist preacher. 

The first Physician in Jacksonburgh was Loring A. Waldo, 
about 1818, who, about fifteen years afterward, moved to Del- 
aware Co. The next, it is believed, was L. P. Pumphrey, who, 
after a few years, removed to Henry Co. Among his suc- 
cessors were Dr. Leggett, Dr. Taylor, and in 1849, Dr. Samuel 
S. Boyd, now of Dublin. Present physician, John R. Mauk. 

Ezekiel Leavell is supposed to have been the first 3lerchant 
in Jacksonburgh, probably soon after the town was laid out. 
Who were his early successors has not been ascertained. Rif- 
ner & Hurst were there in 1841 ; and in 1843-45, Strattan & 
Wright. 

Richard L. Leeson, a native of Pa., came from Eaton, O., 
settlecT a mile east of town, and established a Tannery about 
the same time that Josiah Bradbury commenced his in town, 
and sold to his brother Abner M., who continued it for many 
years. 

The first Religious Society in the township is believed to have 
been that of the Christians, then called by some JSTewlights, 
at Jacksonburgh, formed about 1815. They held meetings in 
dwellings, barns, and school-houses. In 1820, they built a 
frame meeting-house in town. The society was formed by 
David Purviance, Samuel Boyd, John Scott, and others, who 
were afterward joined by John Beard, Richard L. Leeson, 
Robert Leavell, Elijah Martindale, and others. Another in- 
formant names as first members, Samuel and Isabella Boyd, 
Sarah, William, John, and Abraham Crum, Wni. ReAmolds, 
Jesse Frazicr, Henry Logan, Jonathan Kidwell, and others — 
60 or 70 in all. The society, he says, was organized as a 
Christian or Disciple church, by James McVey and Daniel 
Winder. Among the members were Joseph Shank, Wm. 
Boyd, R. L. Leeson, Mary Graham, and others. Their house 
was destroyed by fire about 1840, by an incendiary. It was 
replaced in 1841 by a brick house, which was remodeled in 
1870 ; and a dedicatory sermon was preached by Elder David 
Franklin. 



n«*»«>»» 





HARRISON TOWNSHIP. 237 

The Friends also formed a society about the year 1815 or 
1816, at West Union, IJ miles south of Jacksonburgh. Patrick 
Eeard, Benj. Morgan, Wm. Saint, John Lacy, Lewis Hosier, 
Josiah Bundy, Jehoshaphat Morris, and Jonathan Morris, were 
early members. Meetings were held in a log house. The 
society existed about 15 years. [See Milford Meeting.] 

Biographical and Genealogical. 

John Beard was born in ISTorth Carolina, August 2, 1780. 
His parents emigrated from Londonderrj', Ireland, and settled 
in IsTorth Carolina in 1770. He married Mary Wright in Car- 
olina, in 1803 ; removed with two children to Tennessee, and 
thence, a year after, in 1806, to a few miles below Hunt's set- 
tlement, now in Union county, and in October, 1811, to the 
present township of Harrison, cutting his road a part of the 
way through the wilderness, and driving his team with his 
familj' and household goods, and a cow and a calf, without as- 
sistance. He had a full measure of the experience of pioneer 
life. He is represented as having been an honest, industrious, 
and estimable citizen. He was for a time a member of the 
Christian society at Jacksonburgh, and one of their preachers; 
and at a later period embraced the Universalist faith. He is 
spoken of by one who knew him well, as " a patriot and a 
true lover of his countr}', at all times manifesting a deep inter- 
est in the prosperity of the United States, and the perpetuity 
of our free institutions; and that in the faithful discharge 
of his duties as a husband, a parent, and a neighbor, " he left 
behind him an example worthy to be followed." He died Feb. 
13, 1859, in his 79th year. Being a member of Hall of Milton 
Lodge of Free Masons, he was buried with the usual Masonic 
ceremonies on the 15th. His wife survived him less than two 
years. She died at Milton, Oct. 16, 1860, in her 81st year. 
She proved a valuable helpmeet to her husband amidst the 
hardships and privations of pioneer life, and possessed in a 
high degree those qualities which adorn the female character, 
and which fitted her so well for the discharge of her social and 
domestic duties. The children of John Beard were : 1. 
Sarah, wife of Robert Willitts, who died in Iowa. 2. Isaac N. 
[Sk.] 3. Uaiy TV., wife of Jacob Sinks, deceased; resides 



238 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

with her rlaughter, wife of Kilby Ferguson, Indianapolis. 4. 
Malinda K., wife of H. C. Justice, who went to the far west 
some thirteen years ago, and is supposed to be dead. She re- 
sides with her brother, Isaac N., in Harrison. 

Isaac N. Beard, son of John Beard, was born in North 
Carolina, May 16, 1808. He was about three years of age 
when his father settled, in 1811, in what is now Ilarrisou 
township, the place being then without a name. Being an 
only son, his help was needed on the farm, where he remained 
until after he attained to manhood. He married, March 31, 
1833, Matilda Swope, who was born in Pennsylvania, Oct. 
19, 1814. He settled in , on the farm where he now re- 
sides, near that of his father. He possesses the esteem and 
confidence of his fellow-citizens ; having received at their hands 
various offices of trust, the duties of which he faithfully dis- 
charged. He holds now, and has held for many years, the 
office of justice of the peace ; and has been elected as representa- 
tive of the county in the state legislature. His wife died of a 
cancerous affection, Feb. 11, 1871. Their children are Victoria, 
who married James Lichty ; Mary, who married George T. 
Kepler; Benton J., John W., Levi W., Matilda, Ida. 

Samuel Boyd was born in Craven Co., S. C, May 20, 1763. He 
was of Scotch descent. His father, James Boyd, had previously 
emigrated thither from Virginia, and had six sons and two 
daughters. The father and one son died in a Tory prison dur- 
ing the Revolutionary war; and Samuel, the subject of this 
sketch, came near losing his life by a ball from a Tory gun. 
He recovered, however, with the loss of his left eye, and served 
through the war, having enlisted at the age of 16. He was 
married, December 12, 1785, to Isabella Higgins, who also was 
of Scotch descent, and a not distant relative of Robert Burns, 
the poet. She did not forget, through life, that, when a young 
woman, she danced with Andrew Jackson. In 1788, Samuel 
Boyd, with his wife and one child, moved to Kentucky, where 
they lived 23 years. To provide homes for his nine children, 
be removed to Whitewater Valley; and in November, 1811, 
he built a tent of bark and limbs of trees on Martindale's 
creek, 2 miles north of Jackson burgh, where he entered a quar- 








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^Sccc^^^A/l^i^-e^^eL^ 



HARRISON TOWNSHIP. 239 

ter section of land, on which he lived nntil his death, ISTovem- 
her 27, 1835, aged 72 years. 

In 1801, during the famed Kane revival, in Kentneky, he 
made a profession of the Christian religion, and daring the 
remainder of his life he labored faithfully, as a minister, for 
the salvation of others. During a missionary tour to the In- 
dians, he again came near losing his hfe. An Indian boy 
thoughtlessly touched a burning brand to a keg of powder, 
blowing the rude hut to pieces, killing two children, and in- 
juring Samuel Boyd, who was laid out as dead. He recov- 
ered, and for more than a score of years was an active 
laborer in the cause of his Master. He was a member of the 
Christian church, then often termed "Newlights." As a 
public speaker he was earnest and animated, and for one of 
so limited educational advantages was an efficient Christian 
teacher. His wife lived to the age of 88 years, and died a 
Christian, October 31, 1852. They had ten children ; all but 
one having lived to be married, and settled as farmers and 
farmers' wives, and all except one in "Wayne county : 1. 
James, who died in Richmond, September 29, 1863. 2. John, 
who, at the age of 82, resides in Dublin, 3. William, who 
died in Harrison township, September 22, 1846. 4. Elizabeth, 
wife of Elijah Martindale, lives at Newcastle, aged 78. 5. 
Samuel K., who resides at Centerville. 6. Lard, who died in 
infancy. 7. Robert, who settled in Henry county, and died 
there, February 24, 1853. 8. Martha, wife of Joseph Lewis, 
at Williamsburg, aged 71. 9. Mary, wife of Abner M. Brad- 
bury, Cambridge City, aged 67. 10. Isabella Ladd, who died 
in Marion county, September 16, 1854. These nine heads of 
families had 92 children; and these have so multiplied that 
it is safe to estimate the descendants of Samuel and Isabella 
Boyd at the present date (1871), at 550 children, grandchild- 
ren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren. At 
a social reunion of the Boyd family in 1861, 274 of them 
sat down to a dinner, more than one hundred and fifty being 
absent. 

Abner M. Bradbury was born in Warren Co., O., July 
8, 1798, removed from Butler Co., at the age of 17, to 



240 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Martindale's creek, 3 miles west of the town of "Washington, 
and, with his brother John, built a small fulling mill in 1815. 
In 1820, he settled in Harrison township. In March, 1821, 
he married Mary, a daughter of Samuel Boyd. He was, in 
1820, appointed deputy sheriff under Abraham Elliott; was 
a delegate to the Whig National Convention in 1848; was 
elected in that year an associate judge for "Wayne Co.; and in 
1832, 1833, and 1834, elected a representative in the legisla- 
ture. In 1836, he was elected a senator, and held two years ; 
and again in 1841, for three years. In April, 1869, he removed 
to Cambridge City, where he now resides. His children are: 

1. Isabel, who married James Leeson, of Harrison township. 

2. Caroline, wife of James Russell, Alexandria, Madison Co. 

3. William H., who married Jane Kinley. 4. Elizabeth, wife 
of Isaac Harned, of Cambridge City. 5. James L., who mar- 
ried Eveline Nicholson, and resides near Newcastle. 6. Martha, 
wife of Josephus Mundell, of Ilagerstown. 7. Samuel B., 
who married Margaret O'Neal, and resides at Winchester. 8. 
Daniel M., who married Sarah Ballenger, and resides at In- 
dianapolis. 9. Robert Burns, who married Sarah Townsend, 
and resides at Cambridge City. 10. Albert W., who married 
Francis Hatfield, and resides at Cambridge City. 11. Allison 
B., who married Sarah Burr, and is a practicing physician at 
Milton. 12. Emma, unmarried. 

Lewis Hosier, from North Carolina, in 1807, after a few 
years' residence on the Elkhorn, settled on the land now owned 
b}^ his son Henderson in Harrison. He was a man of limited 
education, which was chiefly acquired from the few books he 
was able to obtain, or to which he had access. He was fond 
of reading, and succeeded in getting hold of a number of 
works of the best authors, which he read with avidity, and 
with which he made himself familiar. He delighted in dis- 
cussion; was an acute reasoner, and adhered with unusual firm- 
ness, not to say obstinacy, to deliberately formed opinions. He 
was a man of strict integrity. His children living are Isaiah, 
in Denmark, Iowa, and Henderson, in the south-east part 
of Harrison township. Children deceased, Enoch, Jesse, Eliz- 
abeth, Mary. Lewis Hosier died in 1853, aged 78. 



HARRISON TOWNSHIP. 241 

Peter Kepler, son of Mattliias Kepler, a Revolutionary 
soldier, emigrated from Pennsylvania to this county in the 
year 1820, and for about a year lived in the Treadway mill on 
Green's Fork, in the north-east part of Washington township. 
In 1821, he settled in the east part of Harrison township, on 
the land now owned by his son John, where he died in 1847, 
aged 65 years. His childen were John, Peter, Margaret, 
Catharine, and Andrew T. 

John Kepler, son of Peter Kepler, Sen., was born January 
8, 1808, at Middletown Valley, Frederick Co., Maryland. He 
removed, in 1815, with his father to Green Co., Pa., and thence, 
in 1820, to Wayne Co., Ind., and now resides on the farm on 
which his father settled permanently, as stated in the above 
notice. Mr. Kepler was married, first, to Anna Poland, Dec. 
25, 1828, and had by her a daughter, Mary Catharine, not now 
living. He married, second, August 8, 1841, in Wayne Co., 
Angeline Danner, who was born in Maryland, August 9, 1821, 
by whom he had seven children : Margaret Elizabeth, born 
June 6, 1843 ; died, Jan. 22, 1864 ; Caroline Zerelda, born 
July 27, 1845 ; Orestes Alexander, born July 28, 1849 ; John 
Florence, March 10, 1851 ; died April 2, 1852 ; Vierling 
Kersey, born August 5, 1853 ; Manzella, a daughter, born June 
24,1855; Alonzo Peter, born May 11,1858. Mr. Kepler is 
one of the most successful farmers in Wayne county, and one 
of the principal financial men of Eastern Indiana. 

Isaac Kinley was born in Guilford Co., I^. C, Oct. 19, 1797. 
He settled in Randolph Co., in 1817, and in Jackson, now 
Harrison, Wayne Co., in 1825. He removed, in 1846, to Iowa, 
where he died, December 24, 1858, from the kick of a horse. 
He married, in 1816, in Highland Co., Ohio, Ann Reese. 
Their children were : 1. Caleb, who died at 24 ; 2. Edward, 
who married, first, Mahala Macy, second, Mrs. Mary B. Davis, 
and is a lawyer at Brunswick, Missouri. 3. Frederick, who, in 
1846, removed from Randolph Co. to Iowa. On the breaking 
out of the war in 1861, he enlisted, with his two sous, Daniel 
and Oliver C, aged 19 and 17. He was in numerous battles, 
and was wounded at Vicksburg, in May, 1863 ; was fur- 
loughed home; rejoined his regiment at Memphis in October; 
and was killed at Chattanooga on the 25th. 4. Isaac. [Sk.] 
18 



242 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

5. Anna, who married Joseph Wain, and resides at Wamego, 
Kansas. 6. Jane, who married Wm. Bradbury. 7. Sarah, 
who died in infancy. 8. Martha, who married John Daniels, 
and resides at Marion, Linn Co., Iowa, and is recorder of the 
county. 

Isaac Kinley, Jun., was born in Randolph Co., Ind., Nov. 
27, 1822. He married, iirst, Nancy B. HoUoway, in 1849; 
second, Mrs. Jeannie G. Adams, October 2, 1859. At the age 
of 15, he commenced as a teacher, and taught district schools 
for several years. In 1848, he commenced teaching at Greens- 
boro' Seminary ; and afterward taught in Union Seminary at 
Spiceland, Henry Co. In 1850, he was elected from that 
county to the Constitutional Convention as a free-soil delegate. 
In 1854, he was elected state senator for four years. In 1861, 
he removed to Richmond ; and the same year he enlisted in 
the war, and was chosen Captain by the company, and elected 
by the officers of the 36fh regiment of Indiana as Major, and 
commissioned by the governor. He was in the battles of 
Corinth, Perrysville, Wildcat, and wounded at Stone River. 
In 1863, he was appoined Provost Marshal of the 5th District. 
In 1866, he was elected to the senate from Wayne Co. In 1869, 
he departed with his wife on a tour to Europe, and returned to 
his home in Richmond, having, during his absence written a 
series of interesting letters which were published in the Radical 
newspaper of Richmond. 

John Scott, a native of Virginia, from Kentucky in 1814, 
settled in the north part of what is now the township of Har- 
rison, where his son Jolin now resides, and where he died in 
1824, aged 53 years. His children were James C, William, 
Robert, Jane, Maria, Lorenzo, Harrison, John, Paulina, and 
Lucinda. James C. died in 1854, where his son Elias now 
lives, aged 50 years. Also, William, Robert, and Lorenzo are 
deceased. Harrison, who married a daughter of the late 
Caleb Lewis, of Washington township, resides in the north 
part of Harrison. 



JACKSON TOWNSHIP. 243 



JACKSON TOWNSHIP. 



Jackson township was formed in February, 1817, by the 
first board of county commissioners under tlie first state con- 
stitution. It then probably contained about one-sixth of the 
area of the county, or upward of 60 square miles. By the 
several alterations of its bounds, in the formation of new town- 
ships and of adjoining counties, it has been reduced to about 
28J square miles, and to a shape not easily described. It is 6 
miles wide on its west line, and 3 miles of its east end is but 
IJ miles wide — its entire length 8 miles. TJie Islational road 
and the Indiana Central Railroad run on nearly parallel lines, 
about GO rods apart, east and west, nearly through the whole 
length of the township. 

Tiie earliest settlement in the township appears to have been 
made in the eastern part. In 1809, or soon after, John Short- 
ridge, from Ky., settled near and south of East Germantown. 
He was the father of John Shortridge who was shot by an 
Indian, as elsewhere related. Wm. G. Reynolds, from Ohio, 
with his brother-in-law, Isaiah Drury, came in 1811. Reynolds 
served in tlie Indian war under Col. Taylor, afterward general 
and president of the United States. Reynolds and Drury 
moved in 1855 to Illinois, and died there. George Shortridge, 
a son of John, Sen., settled where Joseph Vinton lives, near 
the depot. He afterward laid out the town, mostly on his 
own land, and called it Georgetown. The name not being 
generally acceptable to the inhabitants, it was changed to Ger- 
mantown. 

East of Germantown, John Lacy, of NT. C, settled where 
Henry Shisler lives, and owned also where John W. Stefly 

resides. Vance early owned the land south side of the 

road where Pennviile is. James Personett, from Ohio, settled 

in 1819 on land now owned by Ilouck, of Centerville, 

and Henry Whisler. Jacob Waltz, of Pa., in 1823, on land 
previously owned by Jesse Frazier, who was a Christian 
preacher. Joseph Boyd, from Ky., about 1814, in the east 
part of the township, near the National road. Richard 



244 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, 

Wharton, from Ky., in 1814, settled where Joseph Rothemal 
and Henry H. Bruce reside. Wm. G. Reynolds, on land now 
owned by Cyrenus Wysong and Wm. Long. Aaron Mannon, 
from Ky., on the turnpike ; land now owned by John Jacobs. 
Peter Lacy, about 1812, where Andrew Eiiason lives. Patrick 
Beard, from JS". C, about 1811, settled near the east line of the 
township. He was a member of the constitutional convention 
of 1816, and was since elected twice to the senate. 

Jacob Brooks, from Ky., settled on land still owned in part 

by himself and by Austin, and has removed into Center 

township. 

At a later period, Pennsylvania Germans began to settle in 
this part of the township; and the immigration continued 
many years. John Huntsinger, Frederick Waltz, Henry Leon- 
ard, and others, natives of Pa., came from Ohio, about the 
year 1820. Huntsinger settled a mile north-west of German- 
town, and the others near the town. Joseph Schock, from 
Pa., about 1823, settled near the south-west corner of the town, 
and still resides on the farm, a bachelor, at the age of 73 years. 
He bought of the Shortridges. George Shaffer settled south 
of the town, and died about twelve years ago. Charles Morris, 

from N. C, settled in or about 1824 where Boughner now 

lives. Morris now resides in town. About the years 1837 
and 1838, came Jacob, Michael, and Wm. Gipe, and Jacob 
Sowers, Jacob Heist, and still later, Mahlon Boughner. Peter 
Jamison, in 1838, settled 2 miles east of town ; was a school 
teacher, moved to town, and taught the first school in town. 
He died in Dayton, Ohio, in 1850. 

Jacob Vanbuskirk, from Ky., settled about 2 miles east of 
Germautown, and was a blacksmith, probably the first in the 
east part of the township. Henry H. Bruce, a blacksmith, 
settled near town in 1824; married Polly Wharton in 1825, 
and removed to where he now resides, 2 miles southeast of 
town. 

Town of Gcrmantown. 

The town was laid out by George Shortridge, proprietor; 
John Beard, surveyor. It was named Georgetown, and the 
plat was recorded Aug. 1, 1827. The name was afterward 
changed to Germantown, and recorded under that name Sept. 



JACKSON TOWNSHIP. 24 5 

14, !1832. The name of its post-office is East Germantowti, to 
distinguisli it from an earlier one named Germantown in this 
state; and the town also seems to have taken the name of East 
Germantown. Several additions have been made to the town : 
by Frederick Johnsonbaugh, Oct. 11, 1837, recorded in 1839 ; 
by Jacob Rieman, Oct. 11, 1837, recorded Jan. 23, 1841 ; by 
Jacob and John Baker, Jan. 1846 ; by Charles Morris, March 
7, 1853. 

Dr. Trout, from Ohio about 1834, was the first Physician in 
town. He remained but a few years. The second is supposed 
to have been Dr. E. Licket; the third, Dr. Hittel, from Ohio. 
Present physicians are Joseph Weeks and Daniel Carpenter. 

George Negly is said to have kept the first Tavern, about 
1836, then in the west part of the town. The next was kept 
by Jacob Waltz, who built a house in 1836 or 1837, and opened 
it in 1838. It was afterward kept by John Berry and others, 
and later by Jacob Gipe, who sold it some six or seven years 
ago to Charles Morris, who sold it to Wm. Goldman. 

Wm. Anderson was the first Merchant in Germantown, 
about 1834; the second, it is said, Avas John Binkley. In 1840, 
Wm. Lawrence and Lackey & Johnsonbaugh had stores here; 
in 1841 and 1842, F. & M. Johnsonbaugh; in 1843-4, and 
perhaps later, John S. Wolf. In 1844, Jacob Gipe opened a 
store where H. T. Jamison now trades. Mr. Gipe has since 
been in trade at different times with T. J. Riley, H. T. Jami- 
son and Goldman, retiring finally in 1857. Business is 

continued by Jamison. Sowers, who commenced in 1856 

with T. J. Riley, has since, as partner in the firms of Schoft' & 
Sowers, Sowers & Brother, and Sowers & Riesor, been in the 
business, with the exception of one short interval, until May, 
1871, when the store was purchased by its present proprietors, 
Riesor & Rhule. 

The first Blacksmith in the town probablj' was Jacob Stevens, 
from Pa., about 1834. John Condo, from Pa,, early bought of 
John Crura, on the state road near Germantown, forty acres 
of land with a blacksmith shop. After two years it was de- 
stroyed by fire ; and Condo built a shop in town. A year or 
two after, it passed into the hands of Adam Condo ; and the 
business was carried on by Adam and Peter Condo, near \\ here 



246 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

the latter now carries on the hhicksmithing and wagon-making 
business, at the east end of the town. 

The manufacture of Cast Steel Plows was commenced many 
years ago, by Adam Condo, an early resident of Germantown. 
The business was afterward carried on by A. Condo & Son 
[Daniel Condo]. New buildings of brick were erected in 
1870; and since last winter the business has been conducted 
by A, Condo and Jacob Spence, his son-in-law [A. Condo & 
Co.] The establishment has 10 forges, employs about 15 men, 
and is capable of making about 2,000 plows a year. 

The Lutheran Church and congregation at East Germantown, 
composed mainly of Germans from Pennsylvania, was formed 
about the year 1824. Among their early members were the 
"Waltzes, Condos, Keplers, and others. Meetings were for 
several years held in the log school-house. Their minister, 
Rev. Gruber, lived in Ohio, but came over at stated times to 
preach and perform other pastoral services. Two acres of 
ground, a short distance north of town, were purchased at 
$11 an acre, comprising the sites of the present house of 
worship, parsonage, and cemetery. The meeting-house was 
built in 1833. There being among these Pennsj'lvauia immi- 
grants members of the German Reformed Church, they 
joined with the Lutherans in building the house, and called 
a pastor of their own, S. Zumpey. The ministers preached 
alternately to the united congregation. This union con- 
tinued but a few years, since which time the congregation 
has been solely under a Lutheran pastorate. After Mr. 
Gruber, they were served for a time by missionaries, Henkel, 
Heinaka, and perhaps others; and since by regular pastors, 
beginning with Schultz, who was succeeded by Eisency. 
They preached only in the German language. Next, Julius 
Stirewalt and Isaac Ilursh, who preached in German and 
English alternately. M. J. Stirewalt, the present minister, 
preaches exclusively in English. About ten years ago, the 
church edifice Avas thoroughly repaired, and a gallery at one 
end, a steeple, and bell were added. 

Another church, called Evangelical, and distinguished more 
particularly by the name of Albright, was organized about the 
year 1835, and built a meeting-house about 1842. Among its 



JACKSON TOWNSHIP. 247 

early members were Adam Conclo, Charles Knecht and wife, 
Barbara, wife of Jacob Gipe, Jolni Dill and wife, Samuel 
Coclirau, Jacob Rieman, William Clingenhagen and wife, 
Ileurj Erkart and wife. Early ministers, Absalom B. Sbafer, 
Augenstein. Present minister [1870], James "Wales. 

Settlement about Cambridge. 

The lands at and in the vicinity of the site of Cambridge 
City were settled early. John Hawkins, from Kentucky, a 
native of South Carolina, entered, in 1813, the north-east 
quarter of section 27, which included the site of the old 
town of Yandalia; but he did not live to occupy it. The 
land descended to his son, William Hawkins, who took up 
the fractional quarter west of it; the two quarters embracing 
nearly all of the site of Cambridge. Simon Powell, from 
Kentucky, also a native of South Carolina, entered the quar- 
ter north of the present farm of General Meredith, extend- 
ing to the old State road. He, too,' died without settling on his 
purchase. His family settled on it in 1813 or 1814, the eldest 
son having nearly attained to manhood. Their cabin stood 
on the east bank of the river, south of East Cambridge. 
Jesse Symonds, North Carolina, bought north side of the 
State road, adjoining Hawkins's, but, without settling on it, 
sold to Josiah Draper. Nathan Symonds, from N. C, settled 
north of and adjoining Jesse's, and afterward sold to Wm. 
Conwell. These lands are now owned by John Callaway. 
Henry Crull settled early on the north part, and George Ish 
on the south part of the present farm of Gen. Solomon 
Meredith. They sold to Ira Lackey, who, in or about the 
year 1836, built the house (since enlarged) where Meredith 
now resides. Wm. Hawkins bought, besides the lands 
already mentioned, the land where his son Nathan S. resides, 
near and north-west of the town. Samuel Charles, from 
N. C, on land east side of Hawkins's, forming a part of the 

tract north side of town, owned by John Callaway. Yan- 

buskirk, on the land now owned by Alfred B. Williams, and 
perhaps the lands of Henry and John Ingerman and others. 
Henry Palen, from N. C., on land now owned by John 



248 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Morris. Palen had resided a short time 7 miles north from 
Richmond. 

Josiah Draper, about the year 1820, built, north side of 
the State road, a Grist-mill and a Saw-mill, which were sold 
to Benj. Kirk, who built the grist-mill below, which he sold 
to Wm. Conwell, who added a saw-mill. The grist-mill was 
sold to John Cockerfair, who put into it a Carding 3]achine 
and other machinery, and who still owns the grist-mill. 

The Town of Vandalia was laid out by Wm. Hawkins, sur- 
vey recorded June 1, 1824. Wm. Conwell opened a Store 
there in April, 1828, and Hudson Cannon about 1830, who 
two or three years after removed to Milton, where he died. 
Benj. Conklin, who had been from the beginning a clerk of 
Conwell, bought the store, and continued business there until 
1838. After the construction of the National road, business 
was attracted to the line of that road. Ira Lackey opened 
the first Store in East Cambridge as early as 1835; some say 
1833 or 1834. Others soonfollowed him, among whom were 
Elliott, Hannah & Meredith, and J. & I. Pennington ; and in 
1838 Benj. Conklin removed his store from Vandalia to the 
large two-story building he had erected for a store and dwell- 
ing, on the south side of the road, a short distance east of 
the bridge. But the business career of East Cambridge, 
though commenced with flattering prospects, was of short 
duration, 

Cambridge City. 

This town was laid out in 1836; Ira Lackey, Sandford 
Lackey, George Graham, Thomas Tyner, Williams Petty, 
Wm. Hawkins, proprietors. The plat was recorded Oct. 26, 
1836. Several additions have since been made by Wm. Con- 
well, Wm. Hawkins, Thomas Newby, Jonathan Hawkins, 
and in 1867 by Charles II. Moore and Benjamin Fulghum. 

After the incorporation of the town, business tended rap- 
idly to the west side of the river. Sanford Lackey opened 
the first store in the new tovm, on the east corner of the block 
east of the canal, south side of the street, in the present 
brick building erected by him for a store. He afterward 



JACKSON TOWNSHIP. 249 

built tlie house on the opposite corner, now occupied as a 
hotel. 

Benj. Conklin, the last merchant who left East Cambridge, 
removed to the building then owned by Wm. Hawkins, now 
occupied by Felix Conklin as a hardware store. Aljout the 
year 1845, Post & Enyeart built the " Mammoth Store," and 
for two 3^ears carried on an extensive wholesale grocery 
trade. The Whitewater Valley Canal, which was completed 
in 1846, contributed vastly to the trade of Cambridge City. 
This soon became the central point of trade of an extensive 
territory. It was the grand depot for the produce of the 
country, brought here for shipment, and for the delivery of 
merchandise. The merchants of Indianapolis received for 
a time their goods at this place. Large quantities of wheat 
were floured here. The present brick flouring-mill, then 
newly built by Benj. Conklin, had in it, at one time, 90,000 
bushels of wheat, or 5,400,000 pounds. 

That this extraordinary prosperity, the result, in great 
part, of a peculiar juncture of circumstances, should be en- 
during, was hardly to be expected. The completion of the 
canal to llagerstown, and the construction of railroads, have 
virtually established a mart of trade in every town, and 
measurably uarrowed the sphere of the trade of Cambridge; 
yet this being the converging point of so many railroads, 
and being surrounded by a fertile country and a wealthy 
population, it can hardly fail, with an enterprising popula- 
tion, to maintain a large and prosperous trade. 

Among the earlier Merchants, besides those already men- 
tioned, were Harvey & Newby, Andrew and Frederick John- 
sonbaugh, "Williams Petty, John Hosea, Casper Markle, 
Edgerton & Taylor, Simon Clackner, Bloomficld & Petty. 

Present merchants : Dry Goods — W. S. T. Morton, Adam 
Epply, Ilyre & Shroyer, C. B. Elliott, Henry Hoover, Jack- 
son, Ayler & Knott. Grocers — J. P. Smalley & Co., J. W. 
Marson & Co., Israel Morrey, Frank Ebbert, J. & B. Drischel, 
J. T. Baily, Theodore Frohnapel, N. Carey & Son, M. C. Jay, 
Robert Griffin. 

In 1845, the first Hardware Store in Cambridge City was 
established by Nathan H. Raymond and his son Charles H. 



250 HISTORY OF ^yAYNE COUNTY. 

In 1855, Edward, brother of Charles, became a partner — firm, 
C. II. & E. Haymond; afterward, E. Raymond & Co. until 
18G7; then, C. U. Raymond & Co.; present proprietors, 
Charles U. and John U., sons of Charles H. Raymond. A 
second hardware store was established by Henry M. Conklin 
in 185-3 or 1854, from whom the establishment passed, in 
1859, to Felix Conklin, its present proprietor. 

The first Drug Store, it is said, was established in West 
Cambridge, by Thomas D. Whelan, in or about the year 
1840. It is also said that, a year or two afterward. Dr. Sam- 
uel T. Sharp started a drug store east of the river, which 
"was really the first regular drug store." After his death, 
his store was sold to J. Milton Sanders, which was kept but 
a few weeks. The next druggist was Leander Hurd, from 
Cincinnati. He and his wife both died in 1847 ; and the 
stock was purchased by C. II. Hood, who kept the store a 
year or more. Before Hurd's death, Dr. J-. IST. Cowden 
opened a drug store on the west side of the river, which, 
after his death in 1849, passed into the hands of ISTathan 
Raymond, who kept it until 1871, when it was purchased by 
George W. Shults, Jun. Present Druggists — L. S. Tibbals, 
S. P. Hoshour, James McCafltrey, Will H. Conover, George 
W. Shults, Jun. 

Boot and Shoe Stores and Manufacturers in Cambridge City 
are Gauze & Peters and J. Mattis & Co. Samuel Ford, boot 
and shoe maker. 

Saddlers and Harness-makers are Bradbur}^ & Brother and 
Hiram Craig. 

Among the early Physicians in Cambridge City were Sam- 
uel T. Sharp, who came in 1837 or 1838, and died there in 
February, 1846 ; and Dr. Nathan Johnson, who came in Feb- 
ruary, 1839, still living there, but too infirm to practice. Dr. 
Joel Pennington, who had settled in Milton, in 1825, came to 
Cambridge a few years after Dr. Johnson, and remained 
about two years, and returned to Milton. Dr. James V. 
Wayman came in Oct. 1842 ; John H. Wayman in 1846, 
and went to California in 1851. Dr. John Sim came, it is 
supposed, in 1847; he resides there now, and is county treas- 
urer. He was a major in the 36th Indiana regiment in the 



JACKSON TOWNSHIP. 251 

late war, and was wounded at Chickamauga. The present 
physicians are James V. Way man, Lemuel J\. Johnson, who 
began practice here in 1855, John Wall, William Kissell, W- 
E. Carnahan, homceopathist. 

Early Lawyers were David Macy, in 1839 or 1840 ; IsTimrod 
H. Johnson, 1842, for several years; George W. Whitman, 
since State Controller of California; and David W. Reed. 
Present lawyers, Wm. S. Ballenger, George A. Johnson, La- 
fayette Develin, James H. Stewart, David N. Berg, Eobert 
Fletcher. 

Cambridge City Bank was established in the spring of 1853, 
under the Free Banking Law, with a capital of $100,000. 
John Hunt was its first President, but was succeeded, after 
about three months, by Williams Petty ; and he, a few months 
after, by John ^larsh, who held the ofiice until its close. 
John W. Burson was Cashier from its commencement until 
1856. It then passed into the hands of Isaac Myers, J. D. 
Skean, and others : Isaac Myers, President; Thomas Kewby, 
Cashier. In 1862, John Callaway became President. In De- 
cember, 1863, it was organized under the National Banking 
Law, as the First National Bank of Cambridge City, with 
a capital of $50,000, which has since been increased to 
$100,000. Its present proprietors are John Callaway (Pres.), 
Thomas Newby (Cash.), Wm. Lemberger, Jacob Yore, and 
Milton Thornburg. 

The Public Hall is a splendid one, surpassed probably by 
few in the state outside of Indianapolis. It is to the citizens 
of Cambridge a thiiig of great convenience and utility, and 
highly creditable to its proprietor, Mr. Joseph Morrey. It 
will seat 600 people ; is lighted with gas, has dressing-rooms, 
drop curtains, and scenery, all complete. The hall is 40 feet 
wide and 90 feet long, ceiling 26 feet above the floor, and the 
stage 25 feet deep; and the whole is beautifully frescoed. 
The hall is in the large brick block, completed by Mr. Morrey 
in 1868, for store-rooms and oflices. The cost of the build- 
ings is about $20,000. 

Cambridge City Car Company, for the building of railroad 
cars, was organized in 1868, and chartered under a general 
law of the state legislature, with a capital of $100,000. Its 



252 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

officers were, "W"ra. Mercer, president, and "Wm. Dnnliam, 
secretary and treasurer; George L. Thomas, car builder. 
They manufacture freight cars only. The number built 
yearly is about 500, of the average value of about .^700. 
Connected with the establishment is a foundry, in which the 
necessary castings are made. The president died early in 
1871. [The establishment at present is not in operation.] 

The Cambridge City Manufacturing Company had its origin 
in the manufacture of Adams' Queen Washer, by Caleb M. 
and James Peelle, in August, 1867. In 1869 they were 
joined by Albert W. Fletcher and Edward Peelle [firm, C. M. 
Peelle & Co.]; and to their business was added the manu- 
facture of sash, doors, and blinds, and of building materials 
generally. In October, 1869, they obtained a charter as a 
joint stock company, styled the Cambridge City Manufactur- 
ing Company, with a capital of $35,000. 

The Flax Mill of Joseph Morrey is an important manu- 
facturing establishment in Cambridge City. It converts 
annually about 500 tons of flax-straw into tow for the manu- 
facture of bagging ; and the "article is shipped quite exten- 
sively to Louisville, K3^, and St. Louis, Mo. This establish- 
ment aftbrds steady employment to about 20 hands. 

The Marble Works in Cambridge were established in 1857, 
by James W. Carpenter, with a stock of $200 worth of un- 
wrought marble, bought at Indianapolis wholly on credit. 
In 1863, he took into partnership Thomas C. Vickrey, now 
of Richmond, who retired from the concern after two years; 
since which time Mr. Carpenter has continued the business 
alone. About two years ago he began to import the Scotch 
granite. This business has been constantly increasing, and 
now extends to several of the Western states, and forms the 
most important part of his trade. The monuments are all 
manufactured in Scotland to order; and as Mr. C. is himself 
a partner in the manufacture in that country, where he has 
recently been to eft'ect the arrangement, he is enabled to sup- 
ply orders at lower prices than are charged at other estab- 
lishments in the West. His sales, during the lirst year, 
amounted to about $500 ; the last year, $100,000. Several of 
the imported monuments were sold for $2,500 each. 



JACKSON TOWNSHIP. 253 

The Flower and Plant Nursery in the west part of the town 
has heen established and matured by Joseph W. Vestal, who, 
in 1855, commenced vegetable and truck farming. In 1860, 
he commenced the green-house cullication of flowers, and made 
about 300 square feet of glass covering, to which he has an- 
nually made additions, until he now covers nearly 10,000 feet 
with glass, and cultivates about 3,000 varieties. His plants 
are sold into nearly every state in the Union east of the 
Rocky Mountains. His business during most of the year is 
the supplying of nurserymen, florists, and dealers with stock 
for retailing, or with new phmts from which to propagate 
stock. He also deals in sweet potato and other early plants. 
Plants and flowers are sold by retail to customers from sev- 
eral townships of the county. Sales amount annually to 
about $8,000 to §10,000. 

Schools. — An Academical School was established in Cam- 
bridge b}" Prof. Samuel K. Iloshour, who came to this place 
in 1839, from Centerville, where he had acquired a high rep- 
utation as teacher and principal of the Wayne County Sem- 
inary. The Academy building was on the east side of the 
river. Prof. Iloshour continued his school for about seven 
years, when the building was destroyed by fire and the school 
discontinued. 

The new Public School House, which stands in the east part 
of West Cambridge, is a fine building, equaled in size and 
the style of its architecture by few in the county. The town 
is consolidated into a single district; and the course of in- 
struction embraces all the branches of study, from primary 
to academical. 

Religious Societies. — The Presbyterian Church of Milton 
and Cambridge was formed at Milton, August 14, 1837, by 
Rev. Messrs. Graham and John A. Meeks, appointed by Ox- 
ford Presbytery. Its first members Avere, Samuel, Margaret, 
and Alex. Brand, Julia Ann Walker, John Lincoln, George 
W., Catharine, and Susannah Snyder, llenry Shull, David T. 
and Isabella Hileman, and Alenor Allen. Henry Shull, Da- 
vid T. Hileman, Samuel Brand, and George W. Snyder were 
chosen elders. Meetings were held for two years at Milton, 
alter which the place of meeting was changed to Cambridge, 



254 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, 

where, for many years, only occasional preaching was had ; 
and meetings were held in the churches of other societies and 
in school-houses. In 1853 the name of the Presbytery was 
changed to Whitewater; and the same year the name of the 
church was changed to Preshytcrian Church of Cambridge City. 
The present house of worship was built in 1858, on the corner 
of Railroad and Green streets, on a lot given to the society 
by Charles H. and ISTathan Raymond. Since the first election 
of elders, Nathan II. Raymond was chosen to that office, 
June 21, 1846; Henry B. Dinwiddle, January, 1847; Edward 
Raymond, 1852. JSTam.es of ministers who have-supplied the 

congregation are the following : commenced his 

labors in 1847, and served two years ; J. J. Scott, 1852, one 
year ; Isaac W. Monfort, 1854, three years, one-fourtli of the 
time ; 1857, A. McFarland, one-half of the time; II. M. Shock- 
ley, pastor, 1859 to 1861. Rev. Mr. Patton, late minister. The 
present one not ascertained. 

The Congregation of the Christian Church in Cambridge City 
was organized November 12, 1839, (?) by Prof. Samuel K. 
Hoshour. Joel Collins and Mr. Hoshour were chosen elders ; 
John Crume and Ebenezer Finney, deacons. The number of 
members was about thirty, among whom were the following : 
Corbin Jackson, Samuel K. Hoshour, Moses Powell, Benj. 
Berry, Evan Young, Levi Lakey, David Crull, and Joel 
Collins, with their wives, John Crume, and Ebenezer W. 
Finney. Also, Jacob H. Jessup and Joel Pennington and 
their wives, were early members. June 9, 1858, Ebenezer W. 
Finney, Thomas Newby, and David Crull were chosen trus- 
tees of the society. Their first preacher was Rev. Samuel K. 
Hoshour, who served the church for many years. John Kin- 
ney came in 1864. Preachers since, D. R. Van Buskirk, John 
Marshall, Frank W. Parker, Wm. Griggsby, and Thomp- 
son, the present pastor. Meetings were held several years 
in the Seminary building, which was afterward destroyed 
by fire. The society has since built a house of worship. 

A. Baptist Church was formed about the year 1835, of whose 
history little has been learned. It, however, maintained a 
rather feeble existence until 1859, when it was superseded by 
a new organization, as stated below : 



JACKSON TOWNSHIP. 255 

At an adjourned meeting held in the Methodist meeting- 
house in Cambridge, February 2, 1859, a new Baptist organi- 
zation was completed. Ministers present on the occasion, 
M. G. Clark, of Indianapolis, M. Hazen, of Posey, and J. B. 
Simmons. Among the members at the time of the organi- 
zation were Samuel Hervey, Harvey Clark, Wilson Jackson, 
Avery Gates, John Marson, John Christian, Edward Webb, 
and their wives, Mary Hervey, Sarah Scott, Sarah Heritage, 
Minerva Williams. Avery Gates and John Marson were 
chosen deacons; Edward W^ebb, clerk; Wilson Jackson, 
treasurer. The first pastor commenced his labors in Decem- 
ber, 1859 ; Caleb Blood, December, 1860 ; and after an occa- 
sional supply of the pulpit b}' Samuel Hervey, A. S. Ames 
came in May, 1866, and served two years; J. B. Sharp, June, 
1868; Henry B. Rupe, 1869, one year; Joseph H. Sedgwick, 
March, 1870, was called and declined. 

The Methodist Ujnscopal Church in Cambridge is supposed 
to have been oro^anized soon after the town west of the river 
was laid out, or about the year 1837. But as no records of 
a date anterior to 1847, or about that year, have been found, 
its early history can not be given from a church record. Xor, 
after much inquiry, has an early settler been found, who 
could give any reliable information respecting the formation 
of the society. 

Lodges. — Cambridge City Lodge, No. 5, Free and Accepted 
Masons, was chartered May 28, 1844. Charter members : 
A. Goodenough, W. M. ; J. Fisher, S. W^; Thomas Hutton, 
Sen. Officers elect the present year : IST. R. Bennett, W. M. ; 
Kos Whelan, S. W. ; F. Swiggett, J. W. Number of mem- 
bers, about 150. 

A new Lodge, the Thomas Newhy Lodge, No. 434, com- 
menced work under a new charter, dated May 25, 1871. 
Officers: Levin Swiggett, W. M. ; D. I^. Berg, S. W. ; I. N. 
Drury, J. W. 

Royal Arch Chapter, No. 9, 1848, James Whitcomb, G. H. P. 
Officers: S. Reed, IL P.; J. W. Maxwell, K. ; T. Owen; 
E. S. Hoser, C. H. ; W. W. Tyler, P. S. ; E. Barrow, R. A. 
C. ; S. McCain, M. 3d V. ; J. W. Wolf, M. 2d V. ; E. S. Wig- 
gins, M. 1st y. ; C. H. Raymond, Secretary. 



256 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

The above charter was surreiidered December 29, 1852 ; 
and the Chapter rechartered Koveraber 20, 1855, on petition 
signed by the following named Royal Arch Masons: H. B. 
Sinks, J. Pennington, J. Marsh, E, Southwick, E. B. New- 
man, W. B. Enyeart, M. D. Leeson, John Callaway, A. B. 
Claypool, I. N. Beard, C. II. Ilaymond, Williams Petty. 
Officers for the year 1871 : W. B. Enyeart, M. E. II. Priest ; 
James McCaflVey, King ; Nathan Jones, Scribe ; D. A. Berg, 
P. S. ; M. H. Franklin, li. A. C. ; M. C. Roberts, M. 3d Y. ; 
G. W. Shults, Jan., M. 2d V. ; C. McCoy, M. 1st V. ; Kos 
Whelan, Secretary. 

ConnersviUe Commandery of Knights Templars, No. 6, was 
chartered December 27,1855. Charter members : Wm.Peelan, 
Eminent Commander; Martin Fryberger, Generalissimo; 
Joshua Leach, Captain General. The Commandery was 
removed to Cambridge City, April, 1868, and the name 
changed to 

Cambridge Commandery, at a meeting of the Grand Com- 
mandery, in April, 1868. Officers for 1871 : Levin Swiggett, 
Eminent Commander; R. A. Patterson, Generalissimo; O. 
H. P. Little, Captain General. 

Cambridge Council of F. and A. Masons. — Officers: N. R. 
Bennett, Thrice 111. Gr. Master ; Frank Swiggett, Dep. Thrice 
111. Gr. Master ; Silas Canlield, Prin. Conductor of the Work. 

Wayne Lodge, No. 17, 1. 0. 0. F., instituted at Cambridge 
City, Oct. 14, 1844. Charter members — Aaron Reisor, Casper 
Markle, J. M. Hiatt, David G. Kern, Charles J. Graham, J. 
Price, E. P. Justice, Robert Gordon, Chris. Taylor, Jun., O. T. 
Crider. First officers — Aaron Reisor, N. G. ; E. P. Justice, V. 
G.; Casper Markle, Treas. ; J. M. Hiatt, Sec'y. Present offi- 
cers — Robert L. Ramsey, N. G. ; Frank G. Epply, V. G. ; 
Israel Morrey, Treas. ; E. L. Spencer, Sec'y. 

Hormah Encamjpment, No. 11, instituted at Cambridge City, 
July 14, 1848. Charter members — P. G. K. Richards, Casper 
Markle, James Hughes, John F. Youse, Francis Hills, George 
M. Dipboye, James Y. Way man. First officers — P. G. K. 
Richards, C. P. ; John F. Youse, II. P. ; Casper Markle, S. 
W.; Francis AVills, Scribe; G. M. Dipboye, Treas.; James 
Hughes, J. W. Present officers — E. L. Spencer, C. P. ; James 



JACKSON TOWNSHIP. 257 

Griffith, H. P.; John Adams, S. W. ; Nathaniel Gary, Treas. ; 
Kichard A. Taylor, Scribe; W. E. Garnahan, J. W. 

Cambridge Lodge, No. 9, Knights of Pythias. Instituted at 
Cambridge City, August 17, 1870. Charter members — O. H. 
P. Little, K R. Bennett, Max Pracht, D. A. Smalley, Ptobert 
L. Ramsey, E. L. Spencer, R. A. Taylor, S. B. Elliott, Lee 
Pittman, W. B. McKenna, W. B. Enyeart, R. L. Kevil, J. F. 
Huber, Jesse Potf, Frank Mosbaugh, Gusta Brittoii, J. Bobb, 
Henry G. Meredith, Casper Little, Geo. O. Doll, Alfred Cox, 
George L. Weast, Frank G. Epply, R. G. Wilson, James Bow- 
stead, W. B. Williams, J. M. Wisengarber, W. E. Carnahan, 
M. £)., Mike Rink, Frank Stobaugh, J. V. Richardson, Louis 
Wingate. First officers— O. H. P. Little, V. P. ; N. R. Bennett, 
W. C. ; Max Pracht, V. C. ; D. A. Smalley, R. & C. S. ; Robert 
L. Ramsey, F. S.; E. L. Spencer, B.; R. A. Taylor, G.; S. B. 
Elliott, J. S. ; Lee Pittman, O. S. and Host. Finance committee — 
J. V. Richardson, R. A. Taylor, F. G. Epply. Trustees— 3. 
Y. Richardson, F. G. Epply, H. C. Meredith. Present officers — 
Frank G. Epply, W. C. ; John M. Ray, V. C. ; R. A. Taylor, 
V. P.; James W. Richardson, R. & C. S.; E. C. Collins, F. S.; 
Israel Morrey, B. ; Frank Stobaugh, G. ; R. L. Kevil, J. S. ; 
Lee Pittman, G. S. and Host. Trustees — O. H. P. Little, R. L. 
Kevil, Israel Morrey. 

JSeiDspapers. 

[The following historical sketch of the newspapers of Cam- 
bridge City was prepared too late for insertion in tiie history 
of the newspaper press of the county in preceding pages.] 

In the summer of 1845, James H. Hunt, who had published 
a paper at Greenlield, Hancock Co., Ind., removed his office 
to Cambridge and started the Cambridge City Reveille^ which he 
continued until 1850 ; after which, it was published about a 
year by Robert O. Dormer. After a short suspension, it was 
revived by Mr. Hunt and his brother Jonathan H. Hunt, and 
after a few months removed to Portland, Jay Co. The editor 
[Hunt] having, on his death bed, directed it to be removed to 
a warehouse, the person employed dumped the types promis- 
cuously into a dry goods box. The Reveille was Whig in 
politics. 

In 1850, Wm. and Charles Daily removed the Chronicle 
19 



2o8 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

press and types from Connersville to Cambridge City, and pub- 
lished the Cambridge City News, a Democratic paper, during 
the years 1850 and 1851. During the two succeeding years, 
it was published by Lafayette Develin; in which time the 
earlier poems of Louisa Chitwood, then, and until her death, a 
poet of rare promise, made their first appearance in its 
columns. 

In 1852, Whelan & Pritchard, having purchased the office of 
the Western Beformer at Milton, removed it to Cambridge, 
and used it for some time as a job office. AV'heeler & Ryder 
then started the Cambridge City Item, edited by Samuel K. 
Hoshour, whose name appeared at the head of the paper as 
"Conductor," along with that of Kos Whelan as "Engineer," 
and that of N. W. Carey as "Pugilist." 

After a few months, by arrangement Vith Develin, the two 
papers were united, under the name of Cambridge City News 
and City Item, neutral in politics. After it had been published 
nearly a 3'ear, Whelan, Buckingham, and Waltz, in 1855, pub- 
lished the Daily Item, a small slieet, foolscap size, devoted to 
news, fun, and gossip, which survived only a few months. The 
office was then sold to R. J. Strickland, who removed it to 
Centerville. A part of the material is said to be still used in 
the office of the Radical in Richmond. 

In the autumn of 1856, George B. Seig established the Cam- 
bridge City Bulletin, a weekly Republican paper, and published 
it for two years. It was then published for one year by Kos- 
ciusko Whelan. In 1860, the establishment was purcliased 
by Whelan, Kellar, and Leib, who started a new Republican 
paper, named "The Flag of the Free." On the breaking out 
of the war, nearly all the employes went into the army, and 
the paper stopped. The office was sold, and, after passing 
through several hands, the press and types were taken to 
Little Rock, Arkansas. 

In 1864, R. J. Strickland removed the establishment of the 
Wayne County Chronicle to Cambridge City, and issued the 
Cambridge City Journal, a Republican paper, for a year or 
longer. The office was then sold to John C. Lutz and Lafay- 
ette Develin, who issued, Jan. 8, 1866, the iirst number of a 
Democratic paper, named Western Mirror. This had a larger 



JACKSON TOWNSHIP. 259 

circulation than any paper previously published here. Mr. 
Lutz died March 15, 1868, and the paper was conducted by 
Mr. Develin until May 13, 1869, when the office was purchased 
by Henry C. Meredith, who that day commenced the Cambridge 
City IViljime, a Republican paper, which is still published there. 
From June to August, 1870, W. D. Haley was associated with 
Mr. Meredith; and since Dec. 22, 1870, W. P. Harding has 
been associate editor and proprietor. The paper has a large 
circulation. 

8oon after the sale of the Mirror to Meredith, L. L. Dale, of 
Newcastle, removed his paper, the Democratic Times, to Cam- 
bridge City, where it was issued some eight or nine months, 
when he returned to Newcastle. 

After Mr. Dale's departure, T. G. McCaulay, of West Salem, 
Ohio, published the Cambridge City Chieftain, a Democratic 
paper, which, however, after a few weeks, was discontinued. 

lu the south-west i:>art of Jackson township were the fol- 
lowing named early settlers — though not all of them the 
first — on the lands on which they respectively settled: Aaron 
Morris, in 1822, settled \^ miles south-east of Dublin, on land 
now owned by Eli Henby. John Morris, his son, on land 
adjoining, west, now owned by his sons Eli and Thomas B. 
Morris. In 1829, Samuel Morris, also a son of Aaron, north- 
west of his father's, where he still resides. Gideon Myers, 
where Michael Myers lives. Levi Hopper, perhaps the first, 
on land now owned by Joseph Gray, Jun. Wm. Kersey, on 
land lately owned by J. W. Wilson, now by Michael Myers, 
^ mile west of where the latter resides. Francis Hestor, 
where Wm. Adair lives. John Cook, afterward Richard 
Gordon, where Robert Parker lives. Joseph Newton, on the 
present farm of Joseph M. Cox. Daniel Mills, later John 
Hiatt, on the farm now and for many years owned by Joseph 
Cox, at the extraordinary age of 93. Benj. Reynolds, south- 
west corner of the township ; land now owned by Josiah T. 
White, lately by Thomas Gronendyke, now by Nathan Mor- 
ris. Wm. Butler, from Va., settled south-west of Dublin, on 
land now owned by Joseph Thoms, who resides west of the 
county line. James Griffin, where Robert S. Pretlow lives, 
near town. Benj. Griffin, where Samuel Sivey lives^, la.nd 



260 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

adjoining town. Joseph Newby, from N. C, where Jacob 
Vprc resides, west side of the town. Josiah Bell, from N. C, 
came with his father, John Bell, who settled a mile south 
from Cambridge. Josiah afterward settled near Dublin, 
where he still resides. Thomas and Alexander McGreer 
were the first owners of the land where Dublin stands; 
Thomas, of the north part, and Alexander of the south part, 
including the farm lately owned by Bennet Cox, now by 
Daniel Stanton. Hugh McGreer, a brother of Thomas and 
Alexander, bought north of and adjoining the town. Paul 
Custar settled early near the east end of Dublin, and kept a 
tavern about the year 1823, in a hewed log house, sign of the 
" Black Horse." 

In the west part of the township, north of the old State road, 
most of the early settlers were the following : John Hough, 
where John Bond lives. Hugh Allen where Charles Hood 
now owns. John Elliott, from K. C, on the lands now owned 
by Henry Binkley, and others. Isaac Miller, on land now 
owned by Moses Myers. Jehu Burkett, where now Charles 
T. Gough lives. Jacob Elliott, from N. C, where Exum 
Elliott and Harrison Cook live. Benj. Boecham, from N^. C, 
on land now ow^ned by Thomas Hammond. David Sliidler, 
where he still resides. Kathan Jessup, on land now owned 
by Harrison Cook. 

David Caylor was probably the first settler where Kudolf 
Ellenberger lives, on the township north line. John Dill on 
land now owned by J. S. Dill's heirs. John M. Lawson, 
part of section 16, probably bought of the township. David 
Burkett, from N. C, where he still resides, at the age of 88 
years. Thomas Bennett, probably the first, where he now 
lives. Amos Humberd, from N. C, on land of which Wm. 
Mason owns a part ; also, John Ritter and Solomon Bow- 
man, heirs of Humberd. Henry liitter, on land now owned 
by. Jacob Ritter. David Johnsonbaugh was an early settler 
where Isaiah Howard owns. Jacob Moore, where l^athan 
Stonecipher afterward owned. Stonecipher settled where 
John Ritter lives. Adam Shatter has lived for 30 years 
where he now is. David Berg, from Pa. in 1829, settled 
where Israel Ilardmau lives. Samuel Heiny, from Pa., set- 



JACKSON TOWNSHIP. 261 

tied on section 9; land now owned by Abraham Ileiny ; also 
owned where Abraham Heiuy lives. 

Along the valley of the river, and east of it, north of Cam- 
bridge, were the following: Benj. Bowman, where David 

Keller lives. Jacob , on land now owned by T. Kep- 

linger. Gabriel Newby, lands now owned by George Rare- 
sheid and one or two others. John Newby, from N. C, where 
his widow lives. Caleb Morris, on the land now owned in 
part by Caleb J. Morris, and a part lately owned by Henry 
E. Peelle. Abraham Miller, where A. D. Bond's heirs live. 
Jonathan Morris, on land now owned by his son Elias Morris, 
who resides in Cambridge. Samuel Hepley, where Abraham 
Copeland owns. Manasseh Myers, west side of the river, 
on land taken up by Amos Humberd, now owned by George 
"White. Martin Myers, east side, settled early where he now 
lives. MosesMyerssettled where Adam Bertsh owns. Jacob 
Heiny, where he now lives. Hiel Erwin, a part of section 2, 
on which Heil and L. Erwin live. 

Along the National and old State roads, were the follow- 
ing : Hugh Allen settled early on township west line, on 
land lately owned by L. L. Lawrence, now by Charles Hood. 
John Hough, where John Bond lives. Samuel Cripe, on the 
quarter now owned by John and Lindley Miles and Wm. 
Shatter. John and Wm. Addison, on land now owned chiefly 
by Charles T. Hough and Jacob AVhite. John Burkett, of 
Ohio, south of the State road, where Rudolf Burkett lives. 
David Cochran (perhaps not first) where John Huddleston 
resides. 

The first School in the west part of the township is said to 
have been kept in a log house, half a mile from Dublin, on 
the State road. 

John Stump (1815) was one of the earViest Blacksmiths in 
the township. 

The Religious Societies outside of the towns are the fol- 
lowing : 

A church, known as the Albright Church, somewhat simi- 
lar in faith and polity to the United Brethren and the Meth- 
odists, was formed in or about the year 1832, 2 miles north 
of Dublin. Daniel Hart, John M. Lawson, John Dill, Jacob 



262 HISTORY OF AVAYNE COUNTY. 

and Samuel Dickover, John Richwine, James IlifF, and their 
wives, were early members. Their first preacher was Burnett 
Frjar, who formed the class. 

The Friends [Orthodox] formed the Bethel Meeting^ about 
the year 1823, a mile south of Dublin. Another Bethel 
Meeting was formed by the other branch ot the Friends 
[Hicksites], whose meeting-house is near and on the south 
side of the town. 

A United Brethren Church has just been organized, and 
built a house about 3 miles north of Cambridge City. 

Town of Dublin. 

The town of Dublin was laid out by Harmon Davis'. The 
original plat, made out anil signed by him as proprietor, was 
recorded Jan. 29, 1830. Additions have since been made as 
follows: First, by Robert Murphy and Eli Brown, trustees 
for Dempsey Boswell & Sons; in 1846, by Albertson Chap- 
pell, Abraham Symonds, Jacob Custer,' Benj. Griffin, John 
Whippo, J. P. Creager, Caleb W. Wittj Wm. McKimmey; 
in 1837, by C. W.Witt; in 1838, by Samuel Schoolfield; in 
1868 by Samuel Pierce and Mark H. Perkins. When the 
town was first laid out, there was not a building on the 
ground. The first house was a log house built by Isaac 
King, on what is known as Cook's corner. 

Ot the early Merchants, the first three came the same year 
[1831]. The first, it is believed, was Samuel Nixon, who had 
bought the goods of Dempsey Boswell, who, as has been 
stated, had a store near town on the State road. The next 
was Thomas Owens, from Richmond, who had been in trade 
"there, and who bought the little store building of Boswell, 
and moved it into town, on the lot now occupied by J. Brad- 
way as a stove store. He was compelled, from ill health, to 
quit in a few months ; returned to Richmond, and died soon 
after. In December, Jacob Vore commenced his long mer- 
cantile career in Dublin. Nixon soon sold out to Boswell & 
Sons, who traded but a short time. Among the later mer- 
chants were James Vanuxem & Son, Benj. and Josiah Rey- 
nolds, E. II. Vanuxem, J. & B, Kirk, John Lebrick. Present 
merchants : Dry Goods — Dillon & Hill, Jesse Hiatt & Son, 



JACKSON TOWNSHIP. 263 

Thomas J. Layman, John G. Carmony, Jacob V. Hoftman. 
Grocers — Jacob & Wm. H. Vore, W. H. Ken worthy. Ilard- 
loare — J. H. Hull. Druggists — Dr. John M. Bell, Hottendorf 
& Hale. 

The &rst Physician in the town was John Beatty, in 1831 or 
1832, afterward [1834] Caleb W. Witt, and about the same 
time, Lazarus E. Jones, and later, James Elder, Dr. Farns- 
worth, John M. Bell, John W. Smith, and others. Present 
physicians : John M. Bell, Samuel S. Boyd,' Aurelius P. 
Taylor, Livingston B. Taylor, John W. Smith, and, it is be- 
lieved, another, whose name is not furnished. 

The first Tavern in Dublin was kept by Samuel Schoolfield, 
from Va., his sign bearing the motto : " Our country, right 
or wrong." 

A School — perhaps not the first in town — was early taught 
by Mary Schoolfield, now Mrs. Dr. John M. Bell. 

A Female Seminary was established in 1835, by Caleb W. 
"Witt, John Whippo, and Jonathan P. Creager ; and Sarah 
Dickinson was employed as principal teacher for several 
years. 

The Dublin Academy was established in 1837, by a joint 
stock company. The building was afterward occupied as a 
public school-house. In 1867 it was taken down, and the 
present house built, which was dedicated January 1, 1868. 
Its cost was about $15,000. Scholars enrolled, about 450. 

Among the eavly Mechanics of Dublin were, John Crill, the 
first blacksmith, in 1831. Early carpenters, Robert Way, 
Charles Morgan, Albertson Chappel, Axum Elliott.' Anselm 
Butler came in 1834, a wagon-maker ; is now a pump-maker. 
The present carriage-maker is Samuel P. Herrington. Har- 
ness-maker, Oliver Gilbert. The first cabinet-makers in 
Dublin are said to have been Peck & Matthews, as early as 
1829, who sold to Eli Pittman. Thomas Allen commenced 
business in 1832. Jesse Pike, who came that year, worked 
for him, and afterward started for himself, and still continues 
the business. Pike married a daughter of Samuel School- 
field. 

William B. Reed, a blacksmith, came from Ohio to Dub- 
lin, in 1838, where he has carried on the business to the 



264 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

present time, excepting an absence of four years at Cam- 
bridge, and one or two years at Centerville. He is a justice 
of the peace. Two sons, Joseph &. and Alonzo W., served 
in the late war. 

The first Tannery in Dublin was established by Reese 
Ridgeway in 1832, who sold to Benj. Griffin in 1833, and he 
to Axum S. Elliott. The present tannery was established by 
Benj. Kirk, about the year 1844, and is now owned by Ham- 
mond, Brown & Co. 

Samuel Nixon built a Carding -machine near the present 
residence of Caleb W. Witt, but it was not long continued. 

A steam Flouring -mill was built in 1866, by Jacob Vore, 
Jesse Hiatt, and Paul Barnard. January 1, 1867, Hiatt sold 
out to Wm. B. Mitchell ; April 1, 1867, Yore sold to his son, 
Wm. H. ; July 14, Barnard to Wm. H. Yore and Mitchell. 

In February, 1870, they sold to Cox, who failed to make 

payment, and the mill again [November, 1870,] came into the 
hands of its present proprietors, Jacob and Wm. H. Yore. 

The principal Manufacturing Establishment in Dublin is the 
Wayne Agricultural Works, which may be said to have orig- 
inated in 1837, in a foundry established by John Whippo and 
Caleb W. and James Witt, near the site of the present tan- 
nery of Hammond, Brown & Co. In 1839 Caswell and 
Pleasant Witt bought out Whippo ; and in 1840 the four 
Witt Brothers built the present foundry and machine shop 
on the National road [Cumberland street.] In 1845 they sold 
to James W. and Lovell L. Lawrence, who, a few years after, 
sold to Caleb W. Witt, Norton Davis, and Wm. Hollings- 
worth. Aft6r two or three years, the concern passed to 
Samuel Binkley, L. L. Lawrence, and N. Davis. Binkley 
sold his interest to Wilson Jones. Since then the firm of 
Davis, Lawrence & Co; has remained to the present time un- 
changed. They manufacture reapers and mowers, wheat 
drills, scales, hay rakes, etc. On the 1st of January, 1871, 
the concern was changed to a stock compaiiy. Its officers are, 
Norton Davis, president; L. L. Lawrence, vice-president; 
Wilson Jones, actuary ; A. L. Davis, secretary ; E.Lawrence, 
treasurer. The number of hands employed is from 60 to 75. 
Amount of sales, about $150,000 annually. 



JACKSON TOAVNSHIP. 265 

The first Justice of the Peace was Nathaniel Malin ; 2d,-Levi 
Eastridge ; 3d, Jacob Chappell, a shoemaker. Wm. B. Reed, 
a blacksmith, is the present justice. 

The cause of Temperance here found an early and power- 
ful support. Its friends, by united and persevering effort, 
succeeded in putting an end to the liquor traflic. Drunkards 
are not made in Dublin. There is not a drinking saloon in 
it. To this, mainly, is to be attributed the general morality 
of its inhabitants. 

The population of Dublin, according to the census of 1870, 
was then 1,076. 

Religious Societies. — The Methodist Episcopal Church in 
Dublin was formed in 1834. Among the first members were 
Alfred Pierce and his wife, Mary Grove, Margaret Faulkner, 
Abigail Misner, James Bradshaw. Their first preacher is said 
to have been Robert Burns, followed by Kimball, Free- 
man Farnsworth, and others. Their meetings were first held 
at the house of AYm. Faulkner, a local preacher. They built 
a frame meeting-house in 1837 or '38; their present brick 
house, on Dublin street, in 1853-54. 

The United Brethren formed a church in 1837. Among the 
members of the class were Caleb W., Caswell, James, and 
Wm. Witt, John Whittington, and the wives of some or all 
of them. Their meetings were held for several years in a 
room fitted up in the Dublin Foundry. They built a brick 
house in 1846, which was destroyed by fire in 1856 ; and in 
1857, their present house was built. 

The Christian Church of Duhlin was organized January 11, 
1866. Amos Tredway, Jacob Knipe, Lewis C. Wilson, 
Enoch Nation, and their wives, Landell Bowcn, Susan Boyd, 
Ruth Boyd, Sarah Scott, were among the first members. 
Their first preacher was Daniel R. Vanbuskirk ; 2d, John B, 
Marshall; 3d, F. W. Parker; 4th, Wm. Grigsby, the present 
incumbent. Meetings were first held in other churches and 
the town hall. In 1869 they built their neat frame house on 
Dublin street. Their first elders were Enoch Nation, Lewis 
C. Wilson, Daniel R. Vanbuskirk. 

The Univcrsalist Church was organized in 1842 ; and reor- 
ganized in 1863. Members at the first organization were, 



266 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

John "Whippo, Paul Custer, Jacob Custer, Gideon ]\Iyers, 
Edmund Lawrence, and others. Their meetings were first 
held in the Academy building. Their first preacher was 
John C. McCune, Avho officiated at the organization. His 
successors have been Wm. W. Curry, <Benj. Foster, their 
present preacher. Their house, which is on Milton street, 
was built about 1848. 

The Friends [Orthodox] lately formed a new meeting, 
called Dublin Meeting, and meet for worship in the public 

hall. 

Biographical and Genealogical. 

Samuel Scott Boyd, son of John Boyd, was born March 31, 
1820, in Jackson, now Harrison township. Laboring on the 
farm nine months of each year until he was twenty-two years 
of age, his education was limited to the branches usually 
taught in those times during three winter months. At the age 
of nineteen, he was promoted to teacher in the school -house in 
which he had finished his education, under the instruction of 
George W. Julian, of Centerville. In 1843, he and a brother- 
in-law bought and rebuilt the McLucas mills on Green's Fork, 
two miles east of Jacksonburgh. He was married October 14, 
1844, to Monimia, daughter of Dr. William Bunnell, of the 
town of Washington. His health failing, he commenced, in 
1846, the study of medicine with his f;ither-in-law. In March, 
1849, he graduated in the Ohio Medical College, and in April 
located in Jacksonburgh, where he continued practice until 
the death of his wife, an excellent woman, and the mother of 
four children, of which three are living. Immediately after 
this event, which occurred January 7, 1862, he removed to 
Centerville. In September following, he was commissioned 
surgeon of the 84th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and remained 
in the army until the close of the war, sharing the many trials 
and triumphs of that regiment. In 1865, the doctor located 
in Dublin, where he is still engaged in the practice of his pro- 
fession. On the 5th of September of that year, he was mar- 
ried to Louisa E. Vickroy, of Pennsylvania. He has been a 
contributor to various papers and periodicals from early man- 
hood, and has taken an active part in promoting the causes of 



JACKSON TOWNSHIP. ' 267 

temperance and antislaverv, and in efforts for the moval, social, 
and intellectual improvement of the community. 

"William Hawkins, son of John Hawkins, a native of South 
Carolina, was one of the earliest settlers at Cambridge City, 
and original owner of most of the land on which the town has 
been built. It had been entered in 1813, by his father, who 
did not live to occupy it. Nor did William, his son, to whom 
the land descended, make any material improvement on it 
until peace had been made with the Indians, in 1814. In 
1817, he married Isabel Powell, by whom he had ten children: 
1. Jane, who married Allen "Williams, and died here. He re- 
sides at Xeuia, O. 2. John S. N., a physician at Cheyenne, 
Wyoming Territory. 3. 3Ian/, wife of Pyrrhus Woodward, 
of Newcastle. 4. Shnon P., who died at 7. 5. Nathan S., 
who married Huldah C. Marsh, of Vt., and resides near Cam- 
bridge. 6. Tamar A., wife of David Binford ; they live at 
Thornton. 7. William, who married Amelia Marshall, and 
lives at Leavenworth, Kansas. 8, 9. Amos, who died at 11 ; 
and Isabel, in infancy. 10. Lemuel, who married Caroline 
Brown. 

Samuel K. Hoshour was born in York Co., Pa., Dec. 9, 1803. 
His early education was in German. At the age of 16, he was 
employed by a miller as a book-keeper, and during the ensuing 
winter taught a school. He soon after entered for the first 
time an English school, and the next winter taught a second 
term. He then entered an English classical school, though his 
highest aspiration was to become a German preacher in the 
Lutheran Church. He, however, pursued his studies through 
a collegiate course. He studied theology at the Theological 
Institute at New Market, Va., under Prof, Schmucker. The 
latter having been called to the Theological Seminary at Get- 
tysburg, Pa., and Mr. Hoshour being able to preach in both 
English and German, he was chosen as the successor to Mr, 
Schmucker, He was married the same year [1826] to Lucinda 
Savage, of New Market, Va. He afterward accepted calls suc- 
cessively from congregations in Washington Co., Md,, in 1828, 
and Hagerstown, in 1831. A few years after he embraced the 
theological views of Alexander Campbell. In 1835, being con- 
sidered by the Lutheran Synod as having " separated himself 



268 HISTORY OF "WAYNE COUNTY. 

from the Lutheran Church, and no longer a member," that 
body expunged his name from the list of its ministers. He 
immediately set out for the West, intending to settle on a 
small farm, and in the same month, Oct., 1835, arrived at Cen- 
terville. After a short trial at farm labor, he found that his 
literary pursuits and his sedentary habits had greatly disqual- 
ified him for farming, and he engaged as teacher of a district 
school near Centerville. His success soon procured for him 
the principalship of the Wayne County Seminary in that 
town. In 1836, he was appointed by the legislature of In- 
diana a member of the board of trustees of the State Univer- 
sity at Bloomington, which ofiice he held three years. In 
1839, he removed to Cambridge City, where he was for seven 
years the principal of a seminary. Declining health com- 
pelled him to quit the school-rooms, and for several 3'ears he 
taught the German language in various institutions and large 
towns of the state. In 1852, he purchased a small farm near 
Cambridge City, with a view to a settlement on it for life. 
Having been persuaded to invest largely in the Richmond and 
Indianapolis Railroad, he became deeply involved, and lost his 
rural home. In June, 1858, he was elected president of the 
North-western University at Indianapolis. At the expiration 
of three years he became, from choice. Professor of Modern Lan- 
guages, which office he still holds. In addition to his literary 
labors, he has diligently and almost gratuitously performed the 
duties of a minister on the Sabbath. 

Dr. jS'atiian Johnson was born in Loudon Co., Va., Dec. 
14, 1794, and removed with his father, in 1805, to Belmont 
Co., O. ; thence, in 1839, to Cambridge City. In early life he 
taught school ; studied medicine ; and was licenped by the 
Board of Censors of the 17th Medical District, at Canton, 0., 
in 1827 ; attended lectures in Pennsylvania University, at 
Philadelphia, in 1834-35. In February, 1839, he removed 
with his family to Cambridge City, where he has practiced 
medicine until within the last two or three years, and where he 
still resides. He was a member of the first antislavery societies 
formed by the late Benjamin Lundy, and an earnest advocate 
of abolition during the whole period of the antislavery contest; 
and has lived to witness the accomplishment of a long-cher- 



JACKSON TOWNSHIP. 269 

ished object. He was married in Belmont Co., 0., to Sarah 
Hoge, Sept. 23, 1819. Their chiklren were: 1. Nimrod H. 
[Sk.] 2. Rath B., who married Alfred B. Williams, and re- 
sides in Cincinnati. 3. Lemuel B., who graduated at Starling 
Medical College, Columbus, O., in 1850; practiced, succes- 
sively, at Cincinnati, O., in West Virginia, and from 1855 to 
the present time in Cambridge City. He was in March, 1869, 
appointed postmaster, which office he now holds. 4. Elizabeth 
H., who married Paul H. Berkau, a native of Poland, now in 
the Pension Office at Washington. 

N'iMROD H. Johnson, son of l)r. Nathan Johnson, was born 
at Plaiufield, Belmont Co., Ohio, September 16, 1820, and re- 
moved with his father's family to Cambridge City in February, 
1839. He was admitted to the practice of law. May 11, 1843; 
commissioned as prosecuting attorney of Wayne county, Aug. 
27, 1848; elected judge of Wayne common pleas court, Octo- 
ber, 1852; and commissioned as judge of the 21st judicial cir- 
cuit [Wayne criminal court], Oct. 23, 1867. He was married, 
Feb. 22, 1844, to Clarissa M. Ireland, of New Paris, Ohio, and 
had by her a daughter, Clarissa L. He was married to a second 
wife, Catharine C. Underwood, of Washington City, D. C, 
May 8, 1850, by whom he had two children, Henry N. and 
Robert U. Johnson. His children are all living. His useful 
life was suddenly terminated April 28, 1869, by taking, through 
mistake, tincture of aconite, instead of the tincture of gentian. 
He survived the taking of the fatal dose only about an hour. 
A correspondent of the Indianapolis Journal, communicating 
the sad intelligence, wrote : " The judge for many years lived 
here, and at one time practiced law here. He had attained the 
first order in his profession, and was recognized as one of the 
ablest and most brilliant lawyers in Eastern Indiana. His 
literar}^ acquirements were surpassed by those of but few men. 
His reading extended through the whole domain of English 
literature, and could quote more extensively from his readings 
than any other man I ever met. As an advocate, he stood 
very high; before a jury, few men surpassed him." He had 
been for two years, and was at the time of his death, judge of 
the Wayne criminal circuit court. It may be added, that, 
though not a member of any church, he was the teacher of a 



270 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

class of colored children in a sabbath-school in Ceuterville, and 
a trustee of the society of the church of which his wife was a 
member. 

Solomon Meredith was born in Guilford Co., ]^. C, May 
29, 1810. He came to this county in 1829, and for several 
years lived iu and near Richmond and Salisbury, and worked 
at farming by the month. In 1834, he was elected sheriff of 
Wayne county, and re-elected in 1836. In 1838, he commenced 
the mercantile business in Milton, and continued it iu Cam- 
bridge from 1839 to 1843. In 1840, he was a delegate to the 
Whig national nominating convention, and again in 1848, and 
to the Republican convention of 1856. He has been a trustee 
of Cambridge Seminary ; president of the board of trustees of 
Cambridge City; and a member of the board of directors of 
the AVhitewater Canal. In 1846-7-8, he was elected to the 
legislature. In April, 1849, he was appointed by President 
Taylor, United States Marshal for the District of Indiana, and 
removed by President Pierce in April, 1853. In 1854, he was 
again elected to the legislature, and was chairman of the com- 
mittee of ways and means. He was, in connection with John 
S. IsTewman, a financial agent for the completion of the Indiana 
Central Railroad, and was subsequently president of the Cin- 
cinnati and Chicago Railroad Company. In 1859, he was 
elected clerk of the courts of the county. In 1861, he entered 
the military service as Colonel of the 19th Regiment of Indiana 
Volunteer Infantry, and served to the close of the war. He 
was appointed Brigadier-General in 1862, and in 1864 brevetted 
Major- General. In 1866, he was appointed assessor of internal 
revenue for this congressional district; and, in 1867, surveyor- 
general of Montana territory, which office he held until July, 
1869. 

Solomon Meredith was married March 17, 1835, to Anna 
Hannah, who was born iu Brownsville, Pa., April 12, 1812. 
They had four children, three sons and a daughter, Mary, who 
died in infancy. 1. Samuel li., entered the army in 1861 as a 
private, and was promoted to 1st Lieutenant in 19th regiment; 
was also aid-de-camp on the staff of his father. He was 
severely wounded in the battle of Gainesville in 1862, and at 
Gettysburg, in 1863. He never recovered fully from the effects 





//y/ 



)MON MEREDITH. BVT. MAJOR GEK ER AL, U.3 .V, 



JACKSON TOWNSHIP. 271 

of the first wound. He was furloughed home in January, 1864, 
and died on the 22d, at his father's house in Cambridge City, 
aged 25. 2. David 31., Lieutenant in the 15th U. S. Inf., reg- 
ular army, in which he served in the war; was wounded at the 
battle of Chickamauga ; and was promoted to captain and to 
major in the 15th Infantry. He died at Mobile, April 4, 
1867. 3. Henry C, who is a graduate of the state University; 
enlisted as a minutemaii in 1863; was married to Virginia 
Claypool, of Connersville, and is editor of the Cambridge City 
Tribune. 

J^Gah W. Miner, a native of ^orth Carolina, came to what 
is now Union Co., when young, in 1807. In 1834, he removed 
to Henry Co., and, in 1840, settled in Dublin. He is by pro- 
fession a lawyer, and was admitted to practice in 1852. He was 
the second postmaster in Dublin, being the successor of Samuel 
Schooltield, and appointed in 1846. He had four sons, three 
of whom served in the late war. 1. Milton L., who was mar- 
ried to Margaret Hood. (?) He was Captain of the 17th Indi- 
ana Battery, and died of sickness in the army. 2. Oliver H., 
who married Mary Morris, and is not living. 3. William H., 
who married Fanny Chambers, of Harper's Ferry, while in the 
war. 4. John B., married, and resides in Kewanee; was also 
in the war. 

Aaron Morris settled, in the spring of 1815, 1^^ miles south- 
west from Jacksonburg, on Martindale's creek ; and in Decem- 
ber, 1816, moved to a cabin where now Milton is, and cleared 
twenty acres of Jonathan Justice's land, which was first owned 
by Jacob Williams. lu the fall of 1822, he bought a quarter 
section on the line of the Twelve Mile Purchase, 1 mile south- 
west from Cambridge, the principal part of the farm on the 
new Purchase, where he resided until the death of his wife in 
1839. It passed to Josiah Bell and Eli Henby, and is occupied 
by the latter. Aaron Morris died many years ago. His chil- 
dren were: 1. John, who married Sarah, daughter of John 
Bell. Himself, his wife, and two daughters, died within the 
space of one month, in October and j^overaber, 1854. 2. Sam- 
uel, who married Sarah, daughter of Abraham Symons in 
1827, and settled where he now resides, 1 mile south-west from 
Cambridge. His children were, Cyrus, who died at 14; Jason, 



272 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

who married Kutb Mills, and resides near Greensboro' ; Lydia, 
who died in infancy; Mary, residing at home; Jason, in Henry 
Co. ; Charles, who married Mary Jane Diveu, of Cambridge 
City, and resides on the farm with his father. The wife of 
Samuel Morris died in the summer of 1871. 3, 4. Thonhis and 
Mi, younger sous of Aaron jSIorris, reside on the farm of their 

father. 5. . 6. Elizabeth, who married Matthew 

Ferris, who settled 1 mile west from Milton, and died in 1866. 
Their childreu are, William, who is married, and lives at Dory, 
Wabash Co.; Joseph, who married Deborah Atwell, and lives 
in Milton ; Edith, who married Jordan, son of Silas Hiatt, and 
lives in Fayette Co., a few miles west from Milton. 

Dr. John W. Smith, son of Benjamin Smith, was born in 
Wayne township, and removed with his father, in 1824, to 
Jackson, J mile north of Dublin. He commenced practice as 
a physician, at Dalton, in 1836; practiced at Dublin from 1849 
till 1855 ; since in Wabash county, and in Peru, Miami Co. ; 
and returned in 1868 to Dublin. He was married to Abigail 
Misner, by whom he had three sons ; all of whom and him- 
self served in the late war. Dr. Smith was a surgeon of the 
155th Regiment. Amos C, his eldest son, served 4 years and 
4 months; James D., to the end of the war; both wounded. 
Oliver C, the youngest, served 4 months. 



JEFFEESON TOWNSHIP. 

This township was formed in March, 1834, from the town- 
ships of Jackson on the south and Perry on the north. Its 
northern boundary is 6 miles in length; its width is tive miles, 
with the exception of the two eastern sections taken from the 
southern tier in the formation of Harrison. It contains an 
area of 28 square miles. Martiudale's creek crosses the 
township at a distance averaging about three-fourths of a mile 
from the east Hue. The West river crosses it about the same 
distance west of the center, touching the east border of Ha- 
gerstowu, and receives the waters of Nettle creek half a mile 
below the town. Some of the best lands iu the county lie in 
the valleys of these streams. 



JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP. 273 

The years in which most of the earl}' settlers made their 
settlements, is not remembered by any of the oldest inhabit- 
ants. As the sales of the lands west of the Twelve Mile Pur- 
chase did not commence until 1822, it is presumed that most 
of the early settlements were made in the eastern part of the 
township, many of them soon after the peace of 1814-15. 
Some, however, settled on the west side of the line of the 
Purchase several years before the lands were offered for sale. 
Samuel Baldridge, from Kentucky, unmarried, settled, in 
January, 1814, 3 miles east of Hagerstown, and was one of 
the earliest settlers in Jefferson township. Jonathan Platts, 
from K. J., settled early 1^ miles south-east of town. He 
was an early justice of the peace, and at several sessions pres- 
ident of the board of justices, which, from 1824 to 1828, was 
substituted for the three county commissioners ; and from 
1829, for several years a county commissioner. Philip Balti- 
more settled early 1 mile east of town, where Miles Conway 
now lives. Isaac Pierce, from Tenn., settled l^- miles north- 
east from Hagerstown, where now his son Isaac A. Pierce re- 
sides. 

David and Aaron Miller, brothers, settled 3| miles south- 
east of town, on Martindalc's creek, and removed with their 
families about 30 years ago, to St. Joseph Co. Both were 
German Baptist preachers. Sons of Aaron were David, 
Benjamin, Solomon, Isaac. David, the elder, had a son 
Aaron. George Castator was an early settler, now 102 years 
of age, and lives in town with his son, Elijah Castator, a cab- 
inet-maker. Benj. Parsons, from N. J., settled about 1817, 2 
miles east of town, and died in 1864 where now James Mar- 
tindale, a Baptist minister, resides. He had twelve chil- 
dren: Sarah, wife of Frederick Jenks ; Amos, who mar- 
ried Jane Matchett; Martha, wife of Samuel ISTewcomb; and 
Harriet, wife of John Thornburg, reside in the township. 
John Miller, and afterward his brothers Jacob and Samuel, 
settled 2 miles south-east of town. Jacob had served in the 
war of 1812, and was under Gen. Hull at the surrender at 
Detroit. Among others who settled south-east of the town, 
were Daniel Pett}'-, who, about the year 1832, settled on land 
bought of Aaron Miller, where he and his son John uow re- 
20 



274 HISTORY OF -WAYNE COUNTY. 

side. H. Kinsey, C. A. Bradbury, Gr. G. Ilindman, R. Mar- 
tiudale, J. Marti ti dale, W. Fox, L. Stricklcr, M. Conway, and 
others own lands in the east part of the township, the first 
settlers on which are not ascertained. 

Joseph Bowen, a native of Delaware, from Lebanon, O., 
in 1822, settled 1^ miles east of town ; was a Methodist 
preacher ; died in 1863 ; land now owned by Rebecca E. 
Bowen, a grand-daughter. Wm. Brown is said to have set- 
tled early east of town; part of the land now owned by 
Abraham Replogle. 

In the north-east part of the township, David, Andrew, and 
Michael Fonts settled, and still reside there. The first set- 
tlers on the lands now or lately owned by M. Veal, J. Morris, 
M. Smith, A. Bailey, John and Wm. C. Bowen, S. McLucas, 
A. Strickler, E. Brown, and others, not ascertained. 

Hugh Allen settled, in 1820, one mile south-east of town. 
Joseph Manifold, Jun., his son-in-law, now resides on the 
fg,rm. Joseph Manifold, Sen., from Tenn., about 1820, set- 
tled east of and near town ; land now owned, probably, by 
the present settlers, B. L. & M. E. Manifold, and by Robert 
and Franklin G. Kewcomb. Hugh Murphy settled 2 miles 
north-east from town, where J. Funk resides. Samuel Pol- 
lard, of Ky., 2J miles from town ; land now owned by E. 
Petty and Joel Replogle. Isaac McLanahan, near and south- 
east of town ; land now owned by David Lantz. 

In the souih-ioest part of the township the following named 
persons are said to have been early settlers : Adam Stone- 
braker, 1 mile south of town, where now I. Stonebraker 
resides. [Sk.] Wm. Murray, wlio built a carding-machine 
and a saw-mill, and afterward a woolen factory. A saw-mill 
is still there; the property owned by his heirs. Wra. Felton, 
a native of Pa., from Ohio, about the year 1821, near town ; 
built a saw-mill and a corn-cracker. He died there at a great 
age. His wife also died there. John Mason, from Ky., in 
1818, to Washington township, settled 2J miles south-west 
from Hagerstown, in 1822, where Charles Gwynn now resides. 
[Sk.] Moses Miller settled near Jackson line; land now 
owned by Jacob Mason. Abel Johnson and Jacob Dilling ; 
lands owned by Daniel Dilling, Moses Schmuck, and Jacob 



JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP. 275 

Mason. John Lail, where Henry and Frederick Dilling re- 
side. AVm. Campbell, from Ky., in 1823, where his son John 
L. lives. William is in Kansas; Robert died in Huntington 
Co. ; James is a baker in town. Isaac Zook, about 1830 ; 
land since owned by David Heplogle, now by Jacob Hoover. 
Abraham Zook bought land of Wm. McLucas, now owned 
by Martin Fouts. « 

Wm. Jennings settled 2 miles west of town ; now lives in 
town ; farm owned by M. Shnltz. Samuel Filer settled IJ 
miles west from town ; was born in Canada W<est ; married 
Susanna Snyder; removed to Montgomery Co., Ohio, in 
1811 ; thence, in 1823, to where he now resides, at the age of 
about 81 years. He is a member of the German Baptist 
Church. Jonas Hoover, born in Penn., in 1788, removed to 
Ohio in 1809, and about the year 1823, settled one mile west 
from Hagerstown, where he still resides. His children were 
Mary, deceased, Joshua, Aaron, Catharine, John, Alexander, 
Betsey E., Priscilla. 

John or Isaac Zook (?) is said to have settled on the land 
adjoining town, now owned b}' R. & F. Gr. ISTewcomb, near 
where their flouring-mill stands. Thomas Cooper, on land 
now owned by David Bowman. Samuel Zook, on land after- 
ward sold to Jacob Dilling, now owned by Henry Dilling and 
Frederick Dilling's heirs. Wm. Brown settled early south- 
west of town(?); land since owned by Jacob Mason, now by 
Abraham Replogle. 

In the north-west part of the township were the following: 
John Small, from E". C, settled before the land sales, above 
and near town; sold to Abraham Teeter, and removed to 
Henry Co., where he and his wife both died. Jonas Harris, 
also before land sales, settled near and north of town, on land 
now owned by R. & F. G. ISTewcomb, and removed to St. 
Joseph Co., and died there. His son Henry resides in the 
township. Enos Boyd settled on a part of the school section. 
David llardman, a mile west of town, in 1823 ; sold the land 
(now owned by Oliver Stout) and bought of Enos Boyd the 
farm on which his widow, Susanna llardman, lives. He was 
a German Baptist minister, and died in 18G3, aged QQ. Jacob 



276 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Heaston, in 1823, settled west of and near town, and removed 
many years ago to Huntington Co, 

Abraham Teeter, a native of Pa., from Montgomery Co., 
O., in 1823, settled near town; land now owned by Archi- 
bald B. Knode. He removed, about 1840, to where he now 
resides, 2 miles above town, on land bought of John Small, 
before mentioned. His, sons were John, who married and 
died ; Daniel, who owns the grist-mill with his father ; David, 
who owns the steam saw-mill; Jacob and Zachariah, ma- 
chinists in tawn. His daughter Sally married John Zook, 
who owns a grist-mill 1 mile above Teeter's. Zachariah 
Albaugh, a native of Maryland, from Ohio, in 1826, settled in 
the north-west part of the township, where he died March 6, 
1871, aged 76 years. He had been a German Baptist minis- 
ter since 1836. He married, in 1826, Christina, a daughter of 
John Ulrich. Henry CruU, a native of Pa., removed from 
Ohio, in 1833, to the farm where he now lives, 2 miles north- 
west from Hagerstown. His sons, living in the township, are 
William, who is married and lives in town, and has a farm 2 
miles west, first settled by Israel Hardman ; George, who is 
married and lives on the homestead with his father, and 
David, unmarried. John Street settled 2 J miles north-west of 
town, where R. Haldermau now lives. Wm. McLucas where 
now E. Raffe resides, IJ miles north from town. Martin 
Keever, on land now owned by his heirs. Jesse Thornburg, 
2^ miles north; land now owned by John H. Thornburg. 
John Lewis settled 2 miles north ; land now owned by J. 
Charlton's heirs. Absalom Cornelius, from Va., settled where 
Clinton Kelly resides. Joseph Stover entered the lands now 
owned by Samuel G. Newcomb and David Brown. Daniel 
"Wagner, near and north-west of town, sold to Joseph Rep- 
logle, from Pa., in 1831. Samuel Replogle, about 1828, 

bought of Atticus Siddall, Holly, and others, the land 

where Samuel N. Replogle resides. 

Absalom Cornelius, mentioned above ; John Ritter, from 
Ohio, who settled 3 miles east of Hagerstown ; Peter Hard- 
man, from Ohio, who settled in the township; and David 
Wagner, from Ohio, who settled 1 mile north of Hagerstown ; 



JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP. 277 

all removed to South Bend; and Cornelius afterward re- 
moA'cd to Oregon. 

William Gebhart a native of Chester Co., Pa., settled, in 
1848, in the south part of Jefferson. Andrew Fouts, born in 
Montgomery Co., Ohio, in 1831, settled where he now lives, in 
the east part of the township. 

John McCullough, from Pa. in 1820, settled in the east part 
of the township, where his widow Elizabeth McCullough now 
resides, and where he died in 1840, aged 46 years. Their 
children are Amanda, Esther, John, Samuel, EHzabeth^ Louisa, 
Nancy, Jane, George W., Thomas B. 

Samuel Gibson came with his father from Tenn., at about 
the year 1814 or 1815, and settled in the east part of Jefferson, 
and several years after, removed to Madison Co., where he still 
lives. His son Samuel resides 3 miles north-east from Hagers- 
town. 

Eli Petty, son of Daniel, born in Winchester, came to Jeffer- 
son in 1831, married Elizabeth, a daughter of Jesse Thornburg, 
and resides 2i^ miles north-east from Has-erstown. 

Samuel Replogle, from Penn., settled about the year 1827, 
on the place now owned and occupied by his son Samuel, one 
mile north-east from town, and where his widow still resides. 
Their children were, Catharine, (deceased ;) John David, (dec. ;) 
Abram, living 2J miles east from town ; Samuel, Philip, 
Elizabeth. 

David Lantz, a native of Pa., from Ohio in 1833, settled 
where he now resides, 2 miles south-east from town. His 
children were, Obadiah, Emanuel, David, Madison, Thomas, 
(dec.,) Phebe, Edward, Josiah, Sarah Ann, Catharine. 

Samuel Lantz, also a native of Pa., and from Ohio in 1833, 
settled where he now lives, 2 miles south-east from town. His 
children were, Elizabeth, Harry, John, Sarah, Amanda, Leah, 
(deceased,) and Melinda. 

Kobert and Franklin G. Newcomb, from Montgomery Co., 
Ohio, removed to Hagerstown in 1842, and about eight years 
thereafter engaged in the milling business, which they have 
continued until the present time. 

Joseph Replogle, from Pa., in 1827, settled, in 1831, one 



278 HISTORY OF "WAYNE COUNTY. . 

mile north from to\Yn, nncl now resides in town. His children 
living are, Joel, Elizabeth, Sarah, Mahala, Benjamin, Christina. 

Peter Waltz, a native Pennsjlvanian, settled near German- 
town in 1823, and after 10 or 12 years, removed to Madison 
Co., and a few years later, to this township, and died at the 
residence of hia son Solomon, 2J miles south-west fromllagers- 
town, aged 75 years. 

David Hardman, a native of Ky., from Ohio in 1823, settled 
1^- miles west from town, where he died in 1863, at the age of 66, 
and where his widow now lives. He was an elder in the Ger- 
man Baptist church. 

Martin Shultz, from Penn., settled in 1831, near Ilagerstown, 
and now lives about 2 miles west from town. 

Daniel Burkett, from Pa., built the first grist-mill one mile 
below town, on Nettle creek. Another was built by Wm. 
Brumback about a mile above town, and has passed through 
several hands to David and John Uh'ich, its present proprietors. 
About the year 1847, George Gillespie bought the woolen 
factory previously owned by Edmund Ta3'l()r, and converted it 
into a iiouring-mill. In 1854, it passed into the hands of 
Robert and Franklin G. ISTewcomb, its present owners. Its 
capacity is about 150 barrels per day. An oil-mill awd aclover- 
huUer, and later a saw-mill, were built by Abraham Teeter, 
just above town, on West river. (?) In 1838 or 1839, Geo. 
Gillespie bought the propertj', continued the saw-mill, and 
built in the place of the others a grist-mill, which he rebuilt 
about the year 1858 or 1859. One-half of Gillespie's interest 
passed to John Springer, who sold the same to N^ehemiah 
Cheeseman, and the other half to Archibald B. Knode. In 
1864, the property was purchased by 11. & F. G. jSTewcomb, 
who rebuilt the mill in 1867. A saw-mill was built at an 
early day, by Frederic and Peter Waltz, near the line of the 
township. Mark E. Reeves afterward built on this power 
a grist-mill, now owned by John and Daniel Zook. Samuel 
Burkett built in 1870, in town, a steam saw-mill, now owned 
by Stephen Mendenhall. A saw- mill was built 2 miles above 
town, on or near the site of Teeter's grist-mill, by John Small, 
before he sold to the Teeters. David Teeter has a steam saw- 
mill near the same place. 



JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP. 279 

The earliest Blacksmith in Hagerstown, perlmps the first in 
the township, was David Stoneacre ; the next, Peter Cable and 
John Eiler, and soon after, Charles Retz. There are now Fist & 
Jewett. David AVeaver was probably the lirst loagon-maker ; 
now, D, & M. W. PhiUibom advertise carriages and buggies. 
Joseph Arment is said to have been the first cabinet-maker. 
James Walker also was an early one. Elijah Castator and 
Samuel S. Study now supply the people with furniture. The 
pioneer saddler and harness-maker, not ascertained ; W. E. 
Lloyd and another now carry on this business. 

Jacob and Zachariah Teeter have in town a Planing 31ill, 
and a Machine Sho-p for repairing engines and other machinery. 
The establishment is to be enlarged by the addition of an Iron 
Foundry, and the increase of its capacity for the manufacture 
of machinery. 

There is also a Barrel Factory, operated by steam power. 
The name of its proprietor not given. 

The first Physicians were Thomas J. Buchanan and G. 
G. Winchell, partners, the latter residing in Ilagerstowm ; 
Buchanan, a few miles distant, in Henry Co. In 1835, Dr. B. 
removed to town, in the place of Dr. Winchell, who had left, 
and in 1840 returned, and practiced here for several years. 
Dr. Augustus Weaver came about 1837 ; John Clymer, about 
1810 ; Calvin West, about 1842 or 1843, and died here ; Dr. 
Spencer, about 1846 or 1847 ; Dr. Widiken, about 1850 ; 
Samuel J. Ford ; Drs. McElway and Genther, both dead. 

The present physicians are, Samuel J. Ford, J. Read, 

Thornton ; Daniel Smith, (eclectic;) E". F. Canaday, (homoeo- 
pathic ;) C; N. Blunt, J. M. Thurston. 

The first Store was kept by Levi Antrim, about 1820, in a 
hewed log house, yet standing, near Xewcombs' grist-mill. An 
early store is said to have been kept at David H^trdman's, 
and another below town, by Hastings. Wm. Baker bought 
out Antrim in 1831. James Gray came about 1833 ; Joseph 
Hawkins, soon after. Mark E. and James E. Reeves, in 1836, 
bought out Hawkins, and James took charge of the store ; 
sold his interest to Mark in 1840, when Mark came. Among 
the large number who followed, \vere A. B, Knode, Wm. 
Lewis, Gillespie & Co., Wm. Arnold, Christopher Taylor. 



280 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Present merchants : Dry Goods — Beck & Stonebraker, Stone- 
braker & Bruraback, Nehemiah Cheeseman, D. P. Slifer. 
Druggists — TValker & Dilling, Allen & Co., Walter Rogers. 
Hardware — H. Shiveley & Co. Stoves and Tin-ware — E. Brown. 
Grocers — "Wm. DoUey, Wilson Thornburg, li. D. Root, H. 
Lontz, John Lontz, Hannibal Matthews. 

An important branch of the trade of this place is the 
pork packing business of Wiggins & Cheeseman, which has 
for years furnished an ample and a ready market for the great 
staple product of the farmers of the surrounding country. 

The first Lawyer is said to have been John Davidson ; the 
second, John Curtis ; later, David Reed. The present attorneys 
are Wm^^JW. Woods and Daniel W. Mason ; the latter being 
at present Proseciiting Attorney. 

Wm. Baker was an early Justice of the Peace, supposed to 
have been the first in the township, and Thomas Burns the 
next. The present justices are Robert Gardner, Sylvester 
Baldwin. 

Members of the Legislature elected from this township, 
Jonathan Platts, Joseph Hawkins, Wesley Wilhamson, Wm. 
C. Boweu. 

The Toicn of Hagerstown was laid out by Jacob Ulrich and 
Jonas Harris, March 8, 1832, and the survey recorded ISTov. 
15, 1832. An addition was made Oct. 15, 1838, by J. Ulrich, 
Henry Herman, and George Gillespie & Co. 

Religious Societies. — The German Baptist Church (known 
also as Dunkers and Tunkers,) was organized about the year 
1824 ; its members residing in the townships of Jeflersou and 
Jackson, and in adjacent townships in Henry Co. Among its 
early members were David and Aaron Miller, Benjamin Bow- 
man, John Ritter, Jonas Hoover, Samuel Eiler, David Hard- 
man, Benj. Hardman, John Ulrich, Jacob Caylor, Henry Crull, 
and Samuel Cripe. Meetings were first held at private houses, 
in groves, barns, &c., until their meeting-house was built, 1^ 
miles south-west of Hagerstown, about the yaav 1843. Their 
first preachers were David and Aaron Miller, and J3enj. Bow- 
man, the first ordained elder; succeeded by John Bowman, 
David Hardman, Zachariah Albaugh, Daniel Bowman, Jacob 
Bowman, John Holler, David Bowman, Lewis Kinsey, Wm. 
Lindley, Daniel Smith. All but Holler, Kinsey, David Bow- 



JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP. 281 

man, and Smith, became elders. Early deacons were Jacob 
Caylor, Benj. Hardman, John Hardman, John Ulrich. This 
chnrch has, for the accommodation of its members, three other 
meeting-houses : one, 6 miles north-west of Hagerstown, in 
Henry Co.; one, 5 miles south-west, also in Ilenrj^ Co.; and 
another, 4 miles north-west, in Jefferson township. The mem- 
bers attending worship in these different houses constitute but 
one church. Preachers are elected by the members of the 
church, male and female. Elders are chosen from the preach- 
ers, who, after sufficient trial, have given evidence of faitliful- 
ness and ability. The office of elder is the highest in the 
church. Deacons are chosen in the same manner as elders. 

A statement of the religious views and customs of this 
peculiar people may be interesting to those residing in the re- 
mote parts of the county. The fundamental principles of 
their faith are the same as those recognized by most of the 
leading denominations in this country as evangelical. Their 
order of worship, generally, is also similar to that practiced by 
others. Their communion seasons are less frequent; occurs 
ring about once a year in each branch of the church, and being 
observed only in the evening. The bread and wine they do 
not regard as the Lord's Supper. The supper is an ordinary 
meal. Before eating they wash each other's feet, in imitation 
of the example of the Savior, which they consider as binding 
on his professed followers. During the ceremony they sit 
with tlieir faces from the table. When the number is large, 
the service is performed by several of the members; and the 
washing is preceded by a salutation and a kiss. These are fol- 
lowed by others with towels, whose service is accompanied with 
the like salutation and kiss. Those of each sex are served by 
persons of their own number. After the giving of thanks, all 
standing, they seat themselves at the table. After the supper 
is ended, and the table cleared, the bread and wine are served, 
the partaking of each being preceded by the giving of thanks. 
This, as has been observed, is the communion. 

The Dunkers, or Tunkers, [from a word signifying dip,'] be- 
lieve that adults alone are proper subjects of baptism, on the 
profession of faith and repentance, and that no other is Chris- 
tian baptism. This rite is performed by taking the a])plicant 
into the water, who, having kneeled, is dipped three times, 
21 



282 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

face foremost, once in the name of the Father, once in the 
name of the Sou, and once in the name of the Holy Ghost. 
They believe this to be in accordance with the Savior's teach- 
ing. 

They enjoin plainness in dress, and the avoidance of what is 
not essential to bodily comfort. "While they admit that 
religion does not consist in dress, they consider the style of 
dress as an index of the state of the heart. Besides, uniform- 
ity in dress tends to unite the rich and the poor more 
closely in the bonds of Christian fellowship. They are par- 
ticular in having the men sit with their heads uncovered, and 
the women to keep theirs covered, during devotional exercises. 
One of their rules is never to allow any of their members to 
become chargeable to the public for their support. They 
have the privilege of voting for public officers, but they ac- 
cept no civil office, for several reasons, one of which is that 
they hold it wrong to take or administer an oath. They are 
also averse to bearing arms, and to the use of force even in 
self-defense. 

A 31ethodist Episcopal Church, [Olive Branch,] 2| miles 
north-east of Hagerstown, was organized — date uncertain — 
perhaps about the year 1828. Among the early members were 
Joseph Bowen, Samuel Pollard, Isaac Pierce, Charles Con- 
away, and their wives, Joseph Manifold, James Ilartup, Joel 
Bowmen, Jonathan Shaw. They built a frame meeting-house 
perhaps about the year 1837 or 1838, which Avas destroyed by 
fire about the year 1839; and the present brick house was 
built immediately after. Allen Wiley is believed to have been 
the first preacher. After him were George Gatch, Richard 
Robinson, Stephen Beggs, John C. Smith, Joseph Tarkington, 
David Stiver, Ansel Beach, Landy Havens, Miitideus Miller, 
Robert Burns. 

A Christiayi Church was organized about the year 1830, in 
the south-east part of the township. Among its earliest mem- 
bers were the brothers Jacob, John, and Samuel Miller, Mrs. 
Worl, Mary, wife of Daniel Bradbury, Mahala Wilcox, Mar- 
garet Felton. Their first preachers are said to have been 
James and Robert Burn^, succeeded by Elijah Martindale, 
Samuel Miller, John Robertson, Elisha Ashley; present pas- 
tor, James P. Dikes. [It is proper to state that churches of 



JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP. 283 

tin's order are sometimes distincrnishcd by the names of Camp- 
bellites and Disciiples. The church sketched below is said to 
be one of a different order, which is said to have originated 
soon after the beginning of the present century.] 

The Christian Church in Hagerstown was organized in 
1867. The ministers officiating were Wm. T. Warbington 
and James T. Lj'nn. Of the fifteen members who joined at 
the time of its formation, were — Wm. Stonebraker, James 
McXeill, James W. Strode, Charles Earl, and their wives, the 
wife of Daniel W. Mason, the wife of Jacob Bowman and 
daughter, James Stonebraker, Jane Beck. They worshiped, 
in Melodeon Hall until 1869, when they built their present 
brick meeti,ng-house, corner of Washington and South Market 
streets, at a cost of about $12,000. Present pastor, Wm T. 
AVarbington. Trustees — Wm. Stonebraker, Archibald B. 
Knode, Morrison Baldridge, Solomon Miller, George Ilindman. 
Membership about 150. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church in Hagerstown was formed 
in the spring of 1810. Present, John Sullivan, preacher. Of 
those then uniting were — Willis P. Davis, Manlove L. Reed, 
Greenbur}^ Savoy, Andrew Pierce, Thomas Livingston, and 
their wives. Within about one year after, Elijah Van Sandt, 
Silas Ruggles, Bezaleel Taylor, James Linn, Joseph Manifold, 
Thomas Test, and their wives. Of their preachers whose 
names are remembered, were John Kiger, John Sullivan, M. 

Miller, Caldwell Robbins, Davidson. Present preacher, 

— — Roberts. Their present meeting-house, on Perry street, 
north of College street, was built in 1841. 

The Presbyterian Church in Hagerstown was organized Nov. 
20, 1852, by Rev. Robert Irwin and Rev. R. B. Abbott, pastors 
of Union and Hopewell churches, a committee appointed by 
the Presbytery of Muncie. Among their first members were 
Parker Jewett, David Robertson, Washington Robertson, and 
their wives, Betsey Sennington, Maria Henry, Elizabeth Hous- 
ton. John Shearer and David Robertson were chosen elders; 
Parker Jewett and Washington Robertson, deacons. Their 
first minister was R. M. Overstreet, for about two years. His 
successors have been R. B. Abbott, Wm. Armstrong, Wm. 
H. IloUiday, H. K. Kennigh, H. M. Shockley, George Long, 
John H. Aughey, S. S. Potter, and J. M. Lawbach. 



284 HISTORY OP "WAYNE COUNTY. 

Hagerstown Academy was built in 1860, under the direction 
of the trustees, Robert Gordon, Charles Bowers, and John 
Zook. The cost of tlTe property was about $3,500. A new 
and larger building is in contemplation. Scholars are advanced 
from the primary department to the highest grade of academ- 
ical instruction. 

First principal of the graded school is James MclSTeill. 
Board of Instructors — Joseph L. Logan, principal ; Sanford 
Bowman, teacher of the academic de[)0,rtment ; Rebecca Cas- 
tator, teacher of the intermediate department; Sallie Stober, 
teacher of the primary department. Attendance, about 250. 

The present trustees are Wm. Stonebraker, Samuel Study, 
Morrison Baldridge. 

The first Temperance Society in the township, and one of the 
earliest in the county, was formed about the year 1831, in a 
log school-house on the farm of Jonathan Shaw, now owned 
by Eli Petty. Among its members were Samuel Taylor, a 
Bajitist minister, Joseph Bowen, a Methodist minister, Jonathan 
Platts, Jonathan Shaw, Isaac Pierce, Thomas Pierce, Andrew 
Pierce, Sarah Cheeseman, Joel, Jeremiah, and Wm. Bowen, 
Sarah and David Platts. 

The first Sabbath-school in the township was taught in the same 
school-house. It was formed and conducted by Joseph Bowen, 
Jonathan Platts, Jonathan Shaw, Elizabeth Pierce, and otliers. 
Biograi^hical and Genealogical. 

Samuel Baldridge, from Kentucky, unmarried, settled, in 
January, 1814, 3 miles east of Hagerstown, now on the turn- 
pike to "Washington ; built a tent, in which he lived about 
two years. He was, if not the first settler, one of the first in 
the township. He married Elizabeth Rankin, and had eleven 
children: Mary, wife of James Bradbury, and Rankin, who 
married ^Slary Wright ; Washington, who married Mary Ann 
Manifold, and died in Harrison — his widow lives in Jeft'erson ; 
Morrison, who married, first, Mary Ann Petty ; second, Jose- 
phine Buchanan ; Catharine, who married Washington Heagy, 
and removed to Anderson ; both are dead ; Sophronia, wife of 
Augustus Weaver; JTelson, who died at 20, in California; 
Steel, married ; he and wife both dead ; Elizabeth, first, and 
Cynthia Ann, second, married John M. Bohrer, now com- 
mission merchant, St. Paul. Amanda, who died in infancy. 



JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP. 285 

Henry Beitzell, a native of Pennsj^'lvama, removed from 
Fayette county, Indiana, to Hagerstown, in 1846. In 1851 
lie was elected to the office of county recorder, since which 
time he has resided in Centerville. His son, Marcelhis, is a 
hardware merchant in Centerville. 

Joseph Bowen was horn in Delaware, March 25, 1777, and 
was married in Maryland to Savilla Evans. He removed in 
1822 from Lebanon, 0., to what is now Jefferson township, 
IJ miles east of Hagerstown, where he died in 1863; his 
Avife in 1842. Their children were: 1. JoAn, who married, 
first, Nancy Morgan, daughter of Charles Morgan; second, 
Jemima Howell ; and lives 3 miles north-east of town. 2. 
Joel^ who married Nancy Oler, and died on the homestead of 
his father. He was a Methodist preacher. 3. Jeremiah, who 
married Louisiana Cunningham, of Henry county. Both 
died in Delaware county. He also was a Methodist preacher. 
4. Sarah, married David, son of Jonathan Platts, and died 
about 1835. He now resides in Virginia. His son Benjamin 
was captured by Rebels, and died in Libby prison. 5. Will- 
iam C. married Priscilla Schenck, and settled where he now 
resides, in the north-east part of Jefferson township. He has 
been for many 3'cars, and is now, a Methodist preacher. A 
few years since he was a representative from this county in 
tlie legislature. He has four daughters : Mary Elizabeth, 
who married Prof. Levi Ault, teacher, at Farmland ; Sarah 
J., wife of George Bunch, lieutenant in the army, and served 
during the war; Alice C, and Martha K. B. 6. Joseph A. 
married, first, Rebecca, a daughter of John Peelle ; second, 

. He is now a merchant at Whitewater. 7. Jane, 

who married Parker Jewett, and lives in Hagerstown. 

Benjamin Bowman was born in Blair county, Pa., and re- 
moved, at the age of 18 years, with his father to Montgom- 
( ry county, 0.; thence, in 1822, to Jackson, Wayne county, 
a mile and a half north of Cambridge City; and thence to 
Delaware county, where he died at the age of 73 years. He 
had been a minister of the German Baptist church 49 j'ears. 
Two of his children still reside in this county; David, near 
Hagerstown, and Solomon, 3^- miles north of Cambridge City. 



283 HISTORY OP WAYNE COUNTY. 

David Bowman, son of Benjamin Bowman, was born in 
Montgomery county, 0., March 26, 1812; removed with his 
father to Jackson township at the age of 10 years. He was 
married December 5, 1833, to Ruth Bell, who was born July 
10, 1814; removed in 1838 to Henry count}^ and thence to 
Jefferson township, near Ilagerstown, where he now resides. 
He was for several years a justice of the peace, before his 
connection with the church to which he belongs; since which 
time he has, in conformity with the rules of that society, 
refused to accept a civil office. He has, however, during 
his residence in Henry and Wayne counties, settled many 
estates under the appointment of the courts. He united with 
the German Baptist church in Jefferson township, in 1857, 
and has been for nine years one of its preachers. He had 
eleven children: Abraham, who died in infancy; Elias, who 
married and lives atMillville, Henry county; jSTehemiah, who 
died at 19; Solomon, who died in infancy; John and Ben- 
jamin, married, and live in the township; David, who died in 
the army in Texas, ISTovember 3, 1865 ; Kancy, who married 
Lewis W. Teeter, and lives in the township ; Sauford, Mary 
A., and Ithamar. 

jSTehemiaii Ciieeseman, son of Richard W. Cheeseman, of 
Center, settled, in 1834, in the township of Dalton, then the 
w^est part of Perry; and, in 1858, removed to Hagerstown, 
where he was for a number of years extensively engaged in 
milling. In 1868 he erected the hotel building, kept for a 
time by himself, and known as the " Cheeseman House." He 
is now engaged in the mercantile business. His children are 
Richard C, who married Sarali Thornburg, and lives in Dal- 
ton township ; Elizabeth, wife of Wm. Thornburg, in Perry, 
Iowa; David, who married Lizzie JSTewcomb; and Thomas, 
who lives in San Francisco, and works in the mint. 

John Mason, was born in Susquehanna county, Penn., May 
9, 1786. While young, he removed with his parents to Ken- 
tucky ; and at the age of about 19, he went to Montgomery 
county, Ohio, where he was married to Barbara CruU, in 1807. 
About the year 1818, he removed with his family to Washing- 
ton township, Wayne Co., Ind. In 1822, he settled in Jeff"er- 
sou, then an ahnost unbroken forest, where he shared the 
usual hardships and privations of pioneer life. His second 




§ 




JOMPa Ra^i(o)M„ 



JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP. 287 

dwelling, a two-story howu log house, is now owned and occu- 
pied by Charles Gwynn as a residence. In February, 1840, 
having sold his farm to Abraham Kinsey, he removed to 
Jackson, 2} miles north from Dublin. In March, 1854, he 
removed to Claj^ Miami Co., Ind,, where, at the age of 68, he 
again entered the woods with the ardor of a young man. In 
1858, he had a spell of severe sickness of four weeks, during 
fifty-six hours of which time, he was in a kind of trance, mak- 
ing it difficult for even his physicians to tell whether he was 
dead or aUve. In 1865, his children having all left him, he 
rented his farm, and himself and wife made their home with a 
daughter, Sarah Cunningham, where he died March 3, 1870, 
having walked about the room, a few minutes before his death. 
He died in his 84th year, and was buried on a bank of Deer 
creek, 8 miles south of Peru. About the year 1849 or 1850, 
he became a member of the German Baptist church, and con- 
tinued his connection with that organization until his death. 
His wife was born in Penn., Oct. 22, 1790. She has been con- 
nected with that denomination of Christians from her youth to 
the present time. For the last three years she has been almost 
entirely blind. Mr. Mason had fourteen children who were 
all married : 1. Elizabeth, who was married to Robert Felton 
in Jefferson, where she died. 2. Magdalene, to Gabriel Hunt- 
zinger, and died in Jackson. 3. Samuel, to Sarah Koush, and 
died in Jefferson. 4. Hannah, to David Weaver, and resides 
in Miami Co. 5. David, to Mary Brumbaugh, and resides in 
Marion, Grant Co. 6. Catharine, to Samuel W. Farr, and 
died in Blackford Co. 7. Jacob, to Louisa Gwynn, and resides 
in Jefferson. 8. John C, to Mahala Coleman in Grant Co., 
and resides in Miami Co. 9. Sarah J., to Samuel Rhodes in 
Jackson ; and since her husband's death, she removed with 
her parents to Miami Co., where she was married to Andrew 
Cunningham, and resides there. 10. William J., to Sarah 
Ilumburd, in Jackson. 11. Michael S., to Anna Coleman, in 
Grant Co., and resides there. 12. Daniel W., to Matilda E. 
Murray; is a lawyer in Ilagerstown, and at present prosecut- 
ing attorney for the Wayne criminal circuit court. 13. Lucinda, 
to Henry Clark, in Miami Co., and resides there. 14. George 
W., in Miami Co., to Nancy Clymer, who died soon after mar- 



288 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

riage. He then married Mary Holclen in Jackson township, 
and now resides at Sandwich, Canada West. 

Isaac Pierce was born in Virginia, March 25, 1785, and was 
married to Elizabeth Anderson, who was born June 5, 1782. 
He removed thence to this county; and after a year's residence 
at Economy, settled in Jefferson township, where his son Isaac 
A. Pierce now lives, 1|^ miles north of Hagerstown. His chief 
object in coming north was to get away from slavery; and he 
brought with him two slaves to emancipate them. He was 
early enlisted in the temperance cause, and was perhaps the 
first person in tiie township to dispense with liquor at log roll- 
ings. His neighbors on being informed of his intention, told 
him they would not come to assist him. On making known 
his condition to two or three friends at a distance, they advised 
him to adhere to his purpose, and came with their teams to his 
relief. His neighbors seeing the work going on successfully 
without their help, yielded, and joined the company in the 
afternoon. Mr. P. afterward joined the Olive Branch church. 
He had six children, five sons and a daughter, all of whom 
were married, as follows: Thomas was married to ISTancy 
Hursh, in Missouri, whither he went in 1831 ; Andrew, to 
Fanny Brown, and lives in Henry Co.; Sarah, to I^ehemiah 
Cheeseman, living in town; Henrj^, to Mary Mendenhall, and 
lives in Iowa; Ezra to Sarah T. Cheeseman, and died in Kan- 
sas; Isaac A., to Fanny Pollard and resides on the homestead 
of his father. 

Moses Robertson was born in Virginia, March 3, 1788. His 
parents died when he was quite young. After one j^ear's serv- 
ice in the war of 1812, he removed to Indiana in 1813, and 
settled near Jacksonburg, in the present township of Harrison. 
He joined the Christian church in 1815. About 1820, he re- 
moved to Henry county. In 1857, he sold his larm, and 
removed to Hagerstown, where his wife died July 27, 1861, 
aged 72 years. After the organization of the Christian church 
in Hagerstown, he became a member. He is said to have 
been "a liberal Christian, both in views and means;" exem- 
plary in his deportment, and faithful in the discharge of social 
and domestic duties. He died in Hagerstown, Nov. 11, 1868, 
in his 8l8t year. 



NEW GARDEN TOWNSHIP. 289 

Adam Stonebraker was born in Pennsylvania in 1781, re- 
moved to Ohio in 1804, and settled in 1821 one mile sonth of 
Hagerstown, in the wilderness, there being but a few families 
in the township. He resided here until his death, in 1870. 
He had served under Gen. Harrison in the year 1813, in the 
last war with Great Britain; and had been for 25 years pre- 
vious to his death a member of the Christian Church at 
Mount Pleasant. He married Catharine Herald, and after 
her death, Magdelena Smith. He had nine children : 1. 
John, who resides at Blountsville. 2. George, who married 
Jane Brown, and settled, in 1830, near his father, and died in 
1850, aged 45 years, leaving four sons, William, James, John, 
and Joseph. James resides in Huntington Co. ; the other 
three in Hagerstown, all engaged in mercantile business. 3 
James, at Smithjield. 4. Abraham, at Blountsville. 5. Isaac, 
Hagerstown. 6. Sarah S., wife of Wm. Felton, Blounts- 
ville. 7. Bettie (deceased), first, the wife of J. Burkett, after- 
ward, of Leliop. 8. Tena, wife of F. Waller, Blounts- 
ville. 9. Martha, wife of M. Switser, Cambridge City. 

John Hlrich, Sen., settled in 1823 on ISTettle creek, below 
Test's woolen factory, having purchased a large portion of 
the land below to Hagerstown. His sons were Daniel, who 
resides in Dalton township ; John, who settled on the farm 
now owned by Andress S. Wiggins, one mile north-west of 
town, and died about ten years ago ; David, who succeeded 
to his father's farm, which he recently sold, and removed to 
Illinois ; Jacob, who removed to Kansas and died there. He 
had two daughters : Elizabeth, wife of Abraham Teeter ; and 
Christina, wife of Zachariah Albaugh. John, son of John, 
Jun., owns the mills above town. 



NEW GARDEN TOWNSHIP. 

This township, originally including the present township 
of Franklin, was one of the six townships into which the 
county was divided in 1817. It is bounded on the east by 
Franklin township, south by Wayne and Center, west by 
Green, north by liandolph county. Its length, north and 
south, is 7 miles ; its breadth, about 3f miles, containing 
22 



290 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

about 26 square miles. Its principal stream is Noland's Fork, 
which enters it from the north, near its north-east corner, 
and leaves it near its south-west corner. 

Who was the first settler in this township is uncertain. 
John Turner, from IT. C, is supposed to have settled as early 
as 1809 or 1810, on the farm lately owned by his son Robert, 
in the south-east part of the township. Others suppose there 
was no earlier settler than Jonathan Marine, on the farm 
where his son Billy Marine now lives, IJ miles south of IsTew- 
port. Jonathan Hough, from JST. C, settled near where jSTew- 
port now is, having bought the lands on which his sons Hiram 
and Moses, and Thomas Pierson reside. George Shugart, 
from IsT. C, bought at the same time, adjoining Hough's, the 
laud on which Newport stands. He removed to Grant Co., 
where he died. His son George resides 'three-fourths of a 
mile north-east of town. About the same time, James 
Dwiggins, on the land now owned by Howell Grave and Rob- 
ert Preston. Joseph Dwiggins, from JST. C., where Wm. 
Hampton lives. Beuj. Thomas, in 1811, where his son Eli 
lives. John, brother of Benjamin, in 1811 or 1812, where 
Elias Baldwin now lives. Stephen Thomas, from S. C., about 
1812, on land now owned by Charles Thomas. Isaac Thomtis, 

about 1814, on land now owned by Herrington. Tiiomas 

Knight, where Clark Benson lives. John James, early, on 
land afterward owned by John Huff, now by Isaac Thomas 
and Daniel Huft'. 

In the south-west part of the township, Edward and Thomas 
Baldwin, from K. C, and later, Edward Bond, settled on the 
corner section now owned by Jesse and Levi Bond, Pleasant 
Unthank, and Nathan Puckett. AVm. Jessup, on land now 
owned but not occupied by Samuel Dwiggins. Isaac Jessup, 
born in Va., married in N. C, removed to Ohio in 1808, to 
Wayne in 1812, and in 1816 to New Garden, near Dover; 
died in 1842, where his son Jehu lives. Mark Peelle, from 
N. C, on land now owned by Henry Ja3^ Andrew Hamp- 
ton, on land now owned by Isaac Votaw. John Scott, where 
now Addison Harris resides. John Baldwin, from N. C, on 
land now owned by John M. Hodson and Daniel Jarrett ; 
afterward at other places. Daniel Crampton, probably, where 



NEW GARDEN TOWNSHIP. 291 

now S. J. Crampton lives. Isaac Yrilli'.inis, from N". C, 
where Levi Peacock lives, east side of tlie creek ; who also 
owns on the west side. Bcnj. Thomas, 2d, on the land where 
the widow of Wm. Fulghum resides ; afterward removed to 
where his widow now lives. Thomas Bond, from IST. C, set- 
tled near Dover about 1813. Thomas Bond, Jun., in 1836, 
settled 2 miles west from Dover, in Green, where he died in 
1861, aged 61. His son Lindley now lives in Wayne. Joseph 
Bond, from K. C, came in 1811, and died in 1840. Levi, his 
son, lives in Dover. 

In the south-east part, Frank Swain settled where Wm. C. 
Jeffries owns. Abraham Hampton on land now owned by 
James Weeks. Jacob Hampton, on land now owned by Na- 
than Hodgins. Howell Grave, where now Amasa Jenkins, 
son-in-law of Luke Thomas, lives. Hampton Brown, from 
Ohio, settled and died where Thomas J. Carlisle lately owned, 
now Quincy Baldwin. James Massey, from N. C, where 
John Turner settled, and at the same time. 

South of Newi)ort, Obadiah Harris, Sen., from N". C, in 
1811 ; later, Cader Woodward settled where his son Luke 
Woodward resides. Obadiah Harris, son of Obadiah, Sen., 
settled south of his father, and later, where David Pegg 
lives. Both father and son sold out and removed to Ran- 
dolph county. Francis Thomas, from N. C, bought a 
large tract, which passed to his sons, Luke, John, Francis 
W., Isaac, and Clarkson, who resides on the homestead. 
Benj. Thomas settled where his widow and son Tommy 
Thomas reside. Josiali Woodward (perhaps not first), where 
now Cornelius J. Woodward and John Reece reside, on 
Franklin line. Bcnj. Thomas, Sen., K. C, where Eli Thomas 
resides. 

In the north-east part, Samuel Charles, from N. C, settled, 
about 1820, on the land now owned by Henry Moorman and 
Amos Charles. John Peelle, from N. C, on the land now 
owMied by Abraham Brovver. John Fisher, from X. C, 
where Eli Musser resides. Jonathan Willcutts, from S. C, on 
land now owned by Willis Thornton. William Peelle, on 
land lately owned by David Bailey. John Longfellow, about 
1813 or 1814, on or near the east line of the township. He 



292 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

died about two years ago, at the age of nearly 100 years. 
Malaclii Moon, about 1813 or 1814; land owned by Jehu 
Boren. Hiram Bailey, from Ohio, on township north line; 
still owns the land. John Barnes, from S. C, west of and 
adjoining Bailey, and still resides there. 

In the north-west part, James Moorman, from S. C, bought a 
part of section 22, which he still owns, and other farms ; is now 
a banker at Winchester. Stephen "Williams, on land now 
owned by Wm. W. Lacy. John D. Robinson (not fir^t set- 
tler), on land now owned by Michael Keever. Edward Pierce, 
from N, C, on the land now owned by Edward Pierce, his 
son, and Jonathan Willcutts and John F. Cianor. Wm. 
Lacy, from S. C, where he still resides ; served in the war of 
1812. John Lacy, on the quarter now owned by Jonathan 
Willcutts and J. Haisley. Elias Stillwell (not first), on land 
now owned by Lewis Jeffrey. Joel Jeffrey, from N. J., about 
1820, on land now owned by Carey Farmer. Samuel M. 
Boyd, on land now or lately owned by Philip Venard and L 
P. Woodward. Jacob Cook, from IST. C, on land now owned 
by James Brittan Samuel Horner, from I:^. J., settled early 
where Henry Balster lives. Jediah Price, from N. C, and 
his brother Thomas, on the quarter now owned by Thomas 
Price and Wm. Hough. 

Thomas Willcutts, from S. C, settled Ih miles north of 
JS^ewport, on the quarter now owned by Charles Whippo. 
Matthew AUman, iVom i^. C, on land now owned by Samuel 
Dwiggins. Elijah Thomas, from Carolina, on land lately 
owned by Amiel Hunt. John and Henry Henley, wiiere they 
reside, on the east line of the township, 2 miles north-east of 
Newport. Daniel Thomas, son of Elijah Thomas, settled 
where John Benson, George Shugart, and Amiel Hunt's 
heirs now own. Joseph Woody, from N. C, on hind bought 
of Stephen Thomas, now owned by liobert Dwiggins. 

In the west part. Job Jeffrey, from jS'. J., bought two quar- 
ters ; the land now owned by his son John, on the homestead, 

and other heirs. Potter, from X. J., on land now owned 

by his lieirs. Jesse Haisley, from i^. C, on land now or 
lately owned by I. Williams. Harmon Clark, from S. C, 
owned the land now owned by Christopher Williams. Sam- 



NEW GARDEN TOWNSHIP. 293 

iiel Pitts, Sen., on west line of township, where he still re- 
sides. Job Coggeshall, from N. C, settled on land now owned 
by his sons Melvin and Lafe. John Potter, from N. J., on 
the quarter now owned by John Barr and Stephen W. Teas. 
Caleb Cowgill, probably not a first settler, where his son 
Caleb lives, near town. Ira Hunt, where Eli Teag;le resides. 
Jesse Huff, from IST. C, 2|- miles south-west from town, 
where Abraham Harris lives. Nathan Jessup, where now 
Elisha Parker and Jonathan Ilaisley own. Tristram Cogge- 
shall, N. C, on land now owned by his son John. Daniel 
Baldwin, from N. C, father of Charles, John, Daniel and 
Thomas, where Samuel Dwiggins lives. (?) Charles Baldwin, 
from N. C, where now M. K. Miller resides. Josiah Lamb, 
from N. C, where Jacob Williams lives. 

Wm. M. Clark, a native of J^. C, settled, in 1823, 2J miles 
north of IsTewport, and about three years later removed to 
the south part of the township on land now occupied by 
Sarah Harris, where he died about 1848, aged 56. George 
Harris, from K. C, settled in the township about 1830, and 
died many years ago. His son, "Willis L., lives 3 miles north 
of Centerville. 

The first Grist-mill was built by George Shugart, Sen., about 
the year 1815. Isaac and Jesse Reynolds and Eli Osborn, at a 
later date, built a steam grist-mill, which, about tAventy-five 
years after, was destroyed by fire. About 20 to 25 years ago, 
Job Reynolds built a grist-mill on the site of Israel Hough's 
old saw-mill. Israel Hough built his saw-mill about 1815 or 
1816, 1 mile from Newport. About three miles below, John 
Baldwin, Benj. Thomas, and others built a saw-mill. A 
grist-mill was added, and run by a tread mill in a dry time. 
All have been discontinued, and there is now a steam saw- 
mill, owned by Jenkins brothers. Elijah Thomas built a saw- 
mill half a mile above Newport, over forty years ago, where 
a mill has been kept running until a late date. William 
Hough, about twenty years ago, built his saw-mill which is 
still in operation. A steam saw-mill was built in 1870, near 
the railroad, by Ellas Baldwin and his sou Nathan. 

Nathan Smith built a Carding Machine at Newport, turned 
by a horse tread mill, about the year 1822 or 1823. A card- 



294 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

ing machine and fulling-mill were built by Reynolds & Os- 
born at tlieir steam grist-mill. 

Jonathan Hough was the first Blacksmith in the township ; 
"Wm. Macy, probably, the next. The present are, Archibald 
Colby, Wm. Burkhart, "Wm. Bush, Pascal Wadkins. 

Daniel Jones was the first Wagon-maker. Wm. Hough, 
who had worked for Jones, was the next. Joel Parker, from 
IT. C, came in 1830, and carried on the business several years. 
Present wagon-makers are Martin Lamb, Henry Clark, and 
Daniel Hufl' in partnership, and Wm. R. Williams. Car- 
riage-makers, Daniel Hufl" and Lindsay Osborn, in partner- 
ship. 

Charles Gordon was probably the first Saddler and Harness' 
maker; and Elam Unthank, who served under him, the next. 
The present are John Keys and his son Charles. 

Solomon Thomas was the first Cabinet-inaker in jN^ewport. 
Harvey Davis, an appentice or journeyman of his, succeeded 
him, and still occupies the same ground. John Hough worked 
at the business out of town about the time Thomas com- 
menced, and perhaps earlier. He afterward worked awhile 
in town. Naturally ingenious, he took up the business of 
manufacturing clocks, which he carried on for several years. 

The first Tannery was established by Micajah Weesner, 2 
miles south of i^ewport, about the year 1820. Another, 
some later, by Daniel Puckett, at Newport ; afterward carried 
on by Barnabas Hunt, and for a time by Harmon Clark, and 
discontinued. 

The first Merchant was Solomon Thomas, about 1818; the 

, next, Kelsey, who soon died. After him there was none 

for several years. About the year 1825, Levi Cofiin and Dr. 
Henry H. Way commenced trade in partnership. Their early 
successors are not remembered. The following named per- 
sons are known to have traded in Newport between 1839 and 
1845, inclusive, for one or more years: J. & J. Unthank, 
Evans & Hunt, Cofiin & Parker, Joel Parker, Aquila Jones 
& Son, Jesse Reynolds, F. F. Needham, Levi Cofiin. Joel 
Parker commenced trade in 1837, and has continued in the 
business nearly all the time, either alone, or in partnership 
with Levi Cofiin, Dr. Nathan Stanton, Solomon Woody, Wm. 



NEW GARDEN TOWNSHIP. 295 

Hill, and Elwood Parker; and, with Amos K. Hallowell, be- 
longs to the present firm of John Weeks & Co. Also, llobert 
B. iluft; Wm. Hill, and Solomon Woody— firm. Huff', Hill & 
AVoody — are merclumts in I^Tewport. 

The first Physicians were Henry H. Way and Jesse A. Pegg, 
who came about 1820 or 1821, perhaps a little later; pre- 
viously to which time the inhabitants were served by Dr. 
Warner, of Richmond. Among the later physicians have 
been Nathan Stanton, Potts Brothers, and Samuel W. Pur- 
viance. Drs. John Harris and Timothy W. Taylor are the 
present physicians. 

The first School was kept in the Friends' log meeting-house. 
David James, son of John James, and Mary Pegg, taught in 
that house. Kear it a log school-house was built, and Charles 
Baldwin was one of the first, if not tlie first, who taught in 
it. A select school, under the direction of the Friends, has 
been kept up from an early day, with the exception of a few 
brief intervals, to the present time, either near their brick 
meeting-house or in tlie town. The present principal is 
Allen Tyrrell. 

The earliest Religious Society in the township was that of 
the Friends, who, in 1814 or 1815, built a log meeting-house, 
the first in the township, on the site of their present brick 
house. It was warmed in a rather novel manner. A large 
box was filled with dirt, on which was made a fire of char- 
coal. A frame liouse was built about the year 1820, and 
about 1858 the present brick house. The first meeting was 
established about the time the log house was built, and sub- 
sequently both a montlily and a quarterly meeting. Among 
their preachers have been the following, most of them resi- 
dents of the township : John Hunt, Elizabeth Bond, Daniel 
Piickett, Thomas Frazier, of Cherry Grove, Francis Thomas, 
Jeremiah Hubbard, Wm. Hobbs. Zeri Hough and his wife, 
Luke Woodward, Sarafi B. Woodward, wife of Cornelius J. 
Woodward, and Eliza Hodsou, are present preachers. 

A Friends^ meeting was also formed at Newport, about 
1830, which is still continued. 

A meeting was also formed in 1821, at Dover, in the south- 
west corner of the township. It was composed of the fam- 



296 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

ilies of Thomas, Joseph, and Samuel Bond, Walter Roberts, 
Nathan Hawkins, and others, in all ahont twelve families. 

Still another meeting was organized, about 3 miles north of 
Dover, on the township west line, date of organization not 
ascertained. All the meetings mentioned are still main- 
tained. 

At an early period of tbe antislavery excitement, the 
peace of the old society was disturbed, by the propagation of 
the sentiments of the radical or "ultra" abolitionists. The 
dissension resulted in a separation in 1843. The parties, 
however, have long been reunited. 

The llethodist Episcopal Church is said to have been formed 
in 1815, by Elder Wm. Holman. He was probably not a min- 
ister in charge, as the conference that year assigned Wm. Hunt 
to Whitewater circuit. ISTames of members of the class at 
and soon after its formation, given by one of their number, are 
James Dwiggins, leader, and Mary, his wife, Joseph W. D wig- 
gins, John Peelle and Pennina, his wife, Ephraim Bowen and 
Hannah, his wife, ISTancy Bowen, Malachi Moon and Mary, his 
wife, Samuel Henderson, and Lydia, his wife, Joseph Hender- 
son and wife, James Loven and Sally, his wife. They held 
meetings many years in a hewed log-house built on the land of 
James Dwiggins, a mile north-east of Newport. They after- 
ward sold their house to the African Methodists, and built 
their present house in town. Among their preachers are said 
to have been John P. Durbin, Lawrence, Elijah Whit- 
ten, and Amos Sparks ; but neither do their names appear 
among those appointed to Whitewater circuit. 

The Wesleyan 31ethodists organized in 1842 or 1843. The 
society was formed chiefly or wholly composed of the more 
radical antislavery members of the Methodist Episcopal 
church, at the time of the abolition excitement. Among their 
number were Harvey Davis and Eunice, his wife, Joseph and 
Hannah Curtis, Josiah Bell and wife, Eli and Molly Morgan, 
Jediah and Maria Price, Elam Unthank, Griffin Davis, Michael 
and Henrietta Keever, Wm. E. Williams. Their first circuit 
preacher was Mifflin Harker, who has been succeeded by 
Daniel Worth, Alex. Haywood, Emsley Brookshire, Aaron 
Worth, Alfred Hiatt, George Rogers, Enoch Morris, Lewis 



NEW GAEDEN TOWNSHIP. 297 

Beckford, J. W. Johnson, Elijcah Cote, John L. Falls, E. Cote, 
present minister. 

The African Methodist Episcopal Church has existed some 
thirty years, more or less. They bought of the Methodists 
their hewed log-house, and moved, it, in pieces, about half way 
to Kewport. 

A Baptist Church was formed in the north-east part of the 
township. The date of its organization and the names of its 
early members have not been ascertained. It has ceased to 
exist. 

The first marriage in the township was that of Joseph Eat- 
cHiF and Sarah Shugart, daughter of George Shugart, Jan. 4, 
1816. 

Joseph Curtis, Joseph Morrow, and Thomas Stanton have 
been representatives in the state legislature. 

About the year 1830, the Temperance reform commenced in 
this tow^nship. Liquor had been to some extent introduced 
here. Its eft'ects having become serious, the friends of temper- 
ance joined in eiforts to arrest the progress of the evil. A 
society was formed ; the pledge was circulated, and a number 
of inebriates were reclaimed. Among the early and active 
friends of the cause were Dr. Henry H. Way, Eleazar Hiatt, 
Thomas Frazier, Benj. Thomas, Levi Coffin, Daniel Puckett, 
George Shugart, Sen., John Shugart, Wm. Hough, Luke 
Thomas, Josiah Unthank, and others. After years of persist- 
ent fcftbrt the evil was removed. For nearly forty years there 
has been no retailer of liquors in the towm. This is believed 
by some to have been the first temperance society in Wayne 
county. 

An ardislavery paper, called the Protectionist, was started at 
Kewport about the year 1840, edited by Arnold Buffum, of 
New England. Another paper, called Free Labor Advocate 
and Antislavery Chronicle, was afterward established by Dr. 
Way and Benj. Stanton. Both were continued for some time, 
when Bufi^um discontinued his, and the other was kept up 
several years. Also, a free labor store was established in New- 
port, in which the products of slave labor were not kept for 
sale. 

John Turner, James Morrisson, and Benj. Harris settled 



298 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

earl}' 3 or 4 miles south-east of Newport. Morrisson removed 
to Green township, where, while in company with a man 
named Henry Way, both were killed by lightning. 

A citizen of Newport related to the writer the following : 
Jesse Gray and Joshua Addington attempted to take the life 
of an Indian traveling peacefully along the road. Both aimed 
at him with their guns; but in the act of shooting, Adding- 
ton's gun missed fire. The other took effect, and the Indian 
was supposed to be mortally wounded. He was taken by 
George Shugart to his own house, and the next day by Shugart 
and his son to an Indian camp on Green's Fork. The Indian 
recovered. The Indians were pacified by the gift of a horse, 
saddle, and bridle. Another version of the affair differs from 
this in a few minor particulars. 

At the time of the Indian alarms during the war of 1812, 
the inhabitants of the township, like those of other settle- 
ments, fled for safety to the vicinity of Richmond and other 
places. Only George Shugart and Obadiah Harris, Sen., it is 
said, remained in the settlement, and were unmolested. 

The Town of Newport was laid off September 5, 1818, by 
Solomon Thomas and liedden Chance. An addition was made 
by Harvey Davis, in 1830 ; one by Wm. Hough, in 1832 ; and 
another by Robert Green, in 1844. The town was incorporated 
in September, 1844. 

New Garden Lodge, No. 337^, /. 0. 0. F., was organized Dec. 
1, 1869. The Charter viembers were Joseph H. Conner, Abra- 
ham Brower, Henry H. Bogue, Levi C. Huff, Edward W. 
Bailey. First officers — Joseph II. Conner, IST. G. ; Henry H. 
Bogue, V. G. ; Levi C. Huff, R. S.; Edward W. Bailey, P. S.; 
Charles H. Keys, Treasurer. 

New Garden Lodge, No. 439, F. A. M., was organized in 
1869, under dispensation, and chartered May 23, 1871. Of- 
ficers — J. C. Grave, Master; Riley Shugart, Senior Warden; 
Lewis Jeffrey, Junior Warden ; Isaac Lovin, Sen. Deacon ; 
Aaron Lamb, Jun. Deacon; James Jennings, Sec. ; Thomas 
M. Bennett, Treas. ; Robert M. Clark, Tyler. 




jOM^TcaM cfl®yiKi. 



NEW GARDEN TOWNSHIP. 299 

Biographical and Genealogical. 

Jonathan Hough was born in ISTorth Carolina, April 6, 1784, 
and was married, in 1804, to Gulielma Hutchins, who was 
born in Virginia, Oct. 18, 1793. He removed to this connty 
with his wife and four children, and settled near where JSTew- 
port now stands, in November, 1811. On the land he bought, 
his sons Hiram and Moses, and Thomas Pierson now reside, 
on the south side of the town. He died Sept. 27, 1867 ; his 
wife, May 2, 1859. This whole family, it is believed, have 
had a life-long connection with the society of Friends. There 
were ten children : 1. William. [Sk.] 2. Thomas, was mar- 
ried, and died at the age of 28. 3. Israel was married to 
Lydia Woodward, and died in 1850, aged 42. 4. Hiram, mar- 
ried, first, to Anna Hubbard, and after her death, to Sarah 
T. Jones, widow of Samuel Jones, of Waynesville, Ohio. 
5, Mary, unmarried, died in 1836, aged 23. 6. Lydia, mar- 
ried to Levi Jessup, in 1838, and died the same year, aged 23. 
7. Zeri, married to Miriam Hubbard. 8. Moses, to P. Wood- 
ward. 9. Susannah, to S. Teas in 1852, and died in 1855. 
10. Gulielma, married to John Benson. All the surviving 
children, William, Hiram, Zeri, Moses, and Gulielma, reside 
at or near iN^ewport, and the other five died at or in the vicin- 
ity of the same place. 

WiLLiAxM Hough was born in Surry Co., JST. C, August 12, 
1805, and removed with his father, Jonathan Hough, to where 
Newport now is, in 1811. He was married in 1826 to Katy Huff. 
He worked for many years at wagon -making, blacksmithing, 
and other business. During the last 20 years or more, he has 
been on his farm adjacent to the town. He is a member of 
the society of Friends ; and was an early friend and supporter 
of the temperance and antislavery causes. He had six children. 
Daniel, who married Theophana Hopkins. Lydia, who 
married Elias Baldwin, of New Garden. Jane, who married 
Levi C. Harris, of Cincinnati, where she died. Emily, who 
was married, and is deceased. Mary, who married Joseph 
Goddard. Elizabeth, who married Ashley Johnson, and re- 
sides in Monrovia, Ind. The wife of Wm. Hough died in 
1863, and in 1869, he married a second wife. 



300 HISTORY OF "WAYNE COUNTY. 

John Peelle was born in Wayne Co., K. C, March 27, 1791. 
He married, March 6, 1815, Pennina Pate, who was born 
August 25,1795, In 1815, he settled in Randolph county; 
and in 1817 in ISTew Garden, near where Newport now is. In 
1855, he removed to Centerville where he now resides. Both 
himself and wife, formerly Friends, joined the ISIethodist 
Episcopal church ; and in after years returned to the society 
of their early choice. They had twelve children, all of whom 
attained the age of majority : William T., who married Sallie 
C. Jeffrey, and died in Randolph Co. ; Celia, who married 
Jonathan Clevinger, and also died in Randolph Co.; Hiram, 
who married Ann Maria Jeffrey, and resides in St. Anthonj^ 
Minn.; James, who married Mary Clements, and resides in 
Stark Co. ; Harriet, who married Josiah Bogue, and lives in 
'New Garden ; John, who married Lydia Price, and lives in 
Centerville; Pasco, who died unmarried; Jane, who married 
Jesse Morris, and died in Stark Co.; Rebecca, who married 
Joseph A. Bowen, now a merchant at Whitewater; Calvin, 
who married iSTora Keiff'er, and resides in Cincinnati ; Sallie C, 
who married Reuben Kewbern, and died at Centerville; Mary 
Ellen, who married John Pierce, a Methodist preacher. 

George Shugart was born in ISTorth Carolina, where he was 
married to Mary Davis ; and in 1811, came to this county, and 
settled on the quarter section on which the town of ISTewport 
now stands. As were most of the early settlers in this town- 
ship, he was a member of the society of Friends. He lived 
many years where he first settled, and removed to Grant Co., 
where he died. He had nine children : 1. John, who 
married Sarah Ratlift". 2. Sarah, who married, first, Joseph 
Ratliff; second, David, son of Obadiah Harris, 2d. 3. Mary, 
who married Thomas Harris. John, Sarah, and Mary died 
in Grant Co, 4. Tamar, who married Simeon Cox, and died 
.in Randolph Co. 5. George, who resides near ISTewport. [Sk.] 
6. Zachariah, who married Susanna, daughter of Obadiah 
Harris, 2d, and lives in Tama Co., Iowa. 7. Isaiah, who mar- 
ried Ehzabeth, daughter of Jesse Hough ; both died near New- 
port. 8. Catharine, who married, first, Daniel, son of Jesse 
Hough; second, Daniel Charles, in Green. 9. Gulielma, who 
married Nathan Coggeshall, and removed to Grant Co. 



NEW GARDEN TOWNSHIP. 301 

George Shugart, son of George Shugart, the subject of the 
foregoing sketch, was born in July, 1804, and came, when a 
boy, with his father to this township. He was married to 
Ruth, daughter of Jonathan Marine, and resides about three- 
fourths of a mile north-east of Newport. He has ever been an 
esteemed member of the society of Friends. He has had 
eleven children, namely : Luzena, who died in her 7th year, 
Riley, Irena, Jonathan, Jane, Angelina, Charles, Thomas C, 
William, Hannah, Ruth Ann. 

Thomas Family. — Probably no other head of a family, with 
perhaps a single exception, ever came to this county whose 
descendants outnumber those of John Thomas. It appears 
from the following genealogical sketch, that this family has 
contributed largely to the population of another count}- of 
this state; and, we doubt not, to the better class of its citi- 
zens. 

John Thomas, of South Carolina, came to this county in 
1812 or 1813, not so much, probably, with a view to becoming 
a settler as to see the country and visit his children, who had 
settled in New Garden. He stopped at Richmond, where he 
was taken sick, and in a few months died. Of his nine chil- 
dren, all but one came to this county. They were Isaac, John, 
Elijah, Mary, Stephen, Francis, Christiana, Benjamin, and 
Sarah. All were married, as follows: 1. Isaac married 
Rachel Knight. Their children were Solomon, now residing 
in Grant co. ; Betty, wife of Wni. Way, died in Wisconsin; 
Molly, wife of Eli Moorman, died in the township; Achsah, 
wife of Henry Hill, died in Randoplph co. ; Rachel, who 
married Elijah Cox, and died in Randolph co. ; John, who lives 
in Grant co. ; Anna, who married, first, Asa Jessup, second, 
Samuel Pitts, and lives in Green. 2. John married Lydia 
Sueed, and had nine children, all married : Polly, who was 
married to Eli Overman, and lives in Grant co. ; Jesse to 
Hannah Cox, both dead ; Anna to Aaron Morris, and died in 
Grant co. ; Hannah, to Richard Jones, now in Wabash co. ; 
Lydia, to Jolni Pierson, in Wabash co. ; Henley, to Polly 
Hunt, removed west ; Iluldah, to Levi Pierson; both died in 
Grant co. ; ISToah, to Betsey Overman, now in Miami co.; 
William, twin brother of Noah, to Addington, and after 



302 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

her death, to Mrs. Jesse Harvey, sister of iN'oah's wife. 3. 
Mary, dau2^hter of John Thomas, Sen., married Moses Men- 
den hall, in iT. C, and never removed to tliis state. They had 
six cliiklren, all of whom but one came to this county : Mary, 
wlio died in Caroliua, unmarried ; Francis, wlio was married 
to Albertson, of Franklin, both dead ; Ahce, to Alex- 
ander Beauchamp, in (Carolina, where he died; and here, to 
Nathan Jessup, and died in Henry co. ; Rebecca, to Matthew 

Beauchamp; both died in Grant co. ; Dinah, to Spray, 

and removed to Ohio; both dead ; Moses, to Margery Buck- 
ingham, and died in Randolph co. 4. Elijah married Susanna 
Sneed, and died in Cass co., Mich. ; she in Grant co. They 
had thirteen children, as follows : Daniel, who married 
Rachel Way, and removed to Grant co., where she died; and 
he married and lost, in Randolph co., a second wife, and lives 
at Bloomingsport; Mary, married, and lives in Howard co. ; 
Simeon, who married twice, and died in Michigan ; Samuel, 
who died in Grant co. ; Milton, who resides in Grant co. ; 
Henley, who lives in Iowa ; Sneed, who married Miriam Lamb, 
and after her death, Sarah Arnold, and lives in Howard co. ; 
Isaac, who married in Grant co. and removed thence ; John, 
who lives in Iowa ; Susannah, in Grant co. Three children 
of Elijah Thomas died young. 5. Stephen married Hannah 
Mendenhall ; both died in ]^ew Garden. Their children 
were : Mary, who was married to Thomas Hobson, and died 
in Grant co. ; whence he removed to Iowa, and married 
again ; Sarah, to Lewis Moorman, and died in Grant co. ; 
Celia, to Isaac Schooley, and resides in Grant co. ; Charles, to 
jN^ancy Moorman, and after her death, to Isabel Maxwell ; 
ITancy, to David Little, and died in Randolpli co. ; and he, 
after her death, to Mary Cox, of Wayne township ; Lydia, to 
Thomas Baldwin, Fairmount, Grant co. ; Daniel, to Eleanor 
llNTewby, and lives in Grant co. ; Ann, who died at 25, unmar- 
ried; Cam, who married Priscilla Crampton, removed to 
Iowa, and married a second time. 6. jPranm, married Lydia 
"Woodward. [Sk.] 7. Christiana married Thomas Knight, 
and died in Grant co. ; both deceased. Their children were : 
John, who was married to Phebe Jessup, and after her death 
was married again; all died in the county; Benjamin, to 
Anna Bogue ; lives in Iowa, and is married the third time; 



'^r'm c 




K-K?-^ 



(Zy^i^z^-f^^U^^ ^A^^ 



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^/^^^k/'. 



NEW GARDEN TOWNSHIP, 303 

Solomon, to Mary "VVinslow, and resides in Grant co.; Betsey, 
to Nathan Puckett ; Jimmy, to Rachel A\^illcutts, and re- 
moved to Grant co. ; Rachel to Exam Newby, and lives in 
Iowa ; Sarah died unmarried ; Manoah was married to lietsey 
Willoutts, and died in Grant co., where she resides ; Samuel, 
to Jane Votaw, and died in Iowa, where she resides ; Ruth to 
Harmon Pitts ; Benlah, to Aaron Hoft'man, in Indianapolis, 
hoth deceased. 8. Benjamin was married to Anna Moorman, 
and had twelve children, nearly all married: Gulielma, to 
Jesse Bogue, and died in Grant co.; he lives in Iowa; Betty, 
to Cyrus Puckett, and lives in Illinois, where he died ; Nathan, 
to Caroline Diggs, second, to Ann Reynolds, and died in the 
township ; Hannah, who died unmarried ; George, who was 
married to Asmath Hill, and lives in 111. ; Mary, to Wra. 
Peacock, and lives in Randolph co. ; Clarkey, to John Wright 
Jackson ; Benjamin, to Penina Howell, and died in Florida ; 
Aclisah, who died unmarried; Anna was married to Eli 
Hay worth ; they live in Florida ; Ruth died at about 14 ; 
Eli, unmarried, lives with Ach'sah on the homestead. 9. 
Sarah married Charles Baldwin. Their children, besides one 
that dieil in infancy, were Susanna, who was married to 
Jesse Dillon ; both died in Grant co.; Thomas, to Celia Will- 
cutts, removed to Grant co. and married again; Mary, to 
Lancaster Bell, and is in Iowa; Lindsey, to Mary Osborn, 
and died in Grant co., where she lives ; John, who went to 
Grant co., married, and removed to Iowa, and since to Kan- 
sas ; Ahira, to Newby, and lives in Kansas ; Jane, to 

Stanlield, in Grant co., and lives in Iowa, where he died ; 

Abigail, to Joseph Peacock, in Grant co. ; second, to Nathan 
Morris, and lives in Tennessee ; Quincy, first, to Gay ; second, 

to Elizabeth Pike; Sarah, to Stantield, removed to Iowa ; 

Charles, to Knight, and lives in Iowa. 

All the sons of John Thomas and their wives lived to see 
their large families raised. The youngest of them died at 
60, and the oldest at 91. None were twice married ; yet none 
had less than nine children. John Thomas was born Feb. 
19, 1781 ; died Sept. 23, 1866. The number of his grand- 
children was 83. 

Francis Thomas, a son of John Thomas, from South Caro- 
lina to New Garden in 1811. He not only encountered the 



304 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

unavoidable hardships of pioneer life in general, and among 
others, that of going on horseback thirty miles to get bread- 
stuff", but was obliged, with others, to flee for safety during the 
Indian troubles. Notwithstanding his fear of attacks from 
Indians, he held his peace principles too dear not to be pre- 
served at any hazard, even of life. He took the lock from his 
gun, and hid the gun at a di.^tance from his house, lest, in case 
of an attack, he might be tempted to harm the Indians. 
Farming was his favorite and chosen occupation. But, being 
naturally ingenious, he turned his hand occasionally to the 
different trades of carpenter, cabinet-maker, cooper, shoe- 
maker, and blacksmith. He made an early profession of 
religion ; and his well-known honesty and love of peace gave 
him great influence as a peacemaker in the church and com- 
munity. He was liberal and charitable; and was during life 
a member of the society of Friends. He was married to Lydia 
Woodward, and had eight children : 1. Mary, who was mar- 
ried, first, to Ahira Ballard; second, to Eli Hadley, and lives 
in Clinton Co. 2. Luke, to Mildred Fulghum. 3. Sarah, to 
Joseph Hubbard, and died here; he lives in Missouri. 4. 
Absellit, to Rollin Green ; settled in Clinton Cc, and died in 
1871. 5. John, to Smithy i^ewsom, and lives at Azalia, Ind. 
6. Francis W., to Rebecca Corbitt, and lives in Henry Co. 7. 
Lydia, to Joseph B. Mills, and died in Hamilton Co. ; he 
resides at Xeuia, Ind. 8. Isaac, to Mahala Hadley. 9. Clark- 
son, to Sarah Jane Pitts, and lives on the homestead. 



PERRY TOWNSHIP. 

Perry was one of the six townships into which the county 
was divided after the adoption of the state constitution. It 
was in the north-west corner of the county. By the formation 
of Dalton and other townships, its area has been reduced to 
al)0ut 18 square miles, about one-third of its original size. 
Like other portions of the Twelve Mile Purchase, it had few 
inhabitants until after the close of the war of 1812. 

Of the early settlers, the greater portion were from Tenn., 



PERRY TOWNSHIP. 305 

though most of these were probably natives of l!»r. C, and 
Friends. 

Richard Williams, from Tenn., settled, Dec, 1814, one-fourth 
of a mile west of town, where his son John M. Williams lives. 
He had other sons, William, Alfred, Elam, and Millikin, who 
reside in Westville. Robert Canaday, from Tenn., settled near 
Economy in 1814, and died there in 1836 or 1837. He had 
two sons, Joshua and Thomas. Henry and Moses Mills, from 
Tenn., settled in 1815 on the present site of Economy. Henry 
sold to EHhu Swain and Wm. Locke, who, in 1818 or 1819, 
sold to Charles Osborn, who laid out the town. Of the quarter 
section on which the town stands, those portions which lie 
outside of the town, are owned by John Osborn, Thomas B. 
and John M.Williams, Wra. Clark, and Samuel L. McDonald. 
Elihu and Samuel Swain, from Tenn., settled on land now 
owned by the heirs of Elihu Swain, Jun. Elihu Swain and a 
son, Ira, reside in town. Miles Marshall, from Tenn., settled 
on Green's Fork, near Washington; returned south in Janu- 
ary, 1813, and after the war of 1812, came back, and settled, 
about 1815, near Economy; removed ten or twelve years ago 
to Iowa, and died there about 1867 or 1868. John Canaday, 
brother of Robert, settled, about 1816, south side of the town; 
land now owned by Jesse H. Greenstreet, Jonathan B. Clark, 
and Philip Replogle, lately by Wm. Lewis. Wm. Blount, 
from Pa. to Ky., in 1800, and thence, in 1805, to Wayne town- 
ship, and about the year 1814 to Perry, a mile west of Economy, 
on land north of Macy's, on which Jesse AVilletts afterward 
settled, now owned by Edwin P. anil Julia Thornburg, and 
Thomas J. Cook. Several of Blount's sons removed to Henry 
Co., and laid out the town of Blountsville. The father re- 
moved about 1830 to Delaware Co. Thomas Gallon, Ky., set- 
tled IJ miles south-west of town, on land now owned by 
George Comer, lately by J. Ilartup. James Warren, from 
Tenn., on land now owned by Elvan Thornburg. Jonathan 
Macy, from Tenn., next north of Warren ; he was an early 
justice and a merchant. The lands settled by Robert Canaday 
and Miles Marshall, in or about the 3'ear 1814 and 1815, are 
said to be those now owned by Lindsey Canaday, John A. 
Shepard, Matilda, widow of Jonathan B. Macy, and others. 
28 



306 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, 

Jesse Baldwin, probably a Carolinian, from Ky. to Perry, is 
said to have built the tirst house on the land now owned by 
Matilda Macy. Though a Quaker, he had the honor of being 
an acquaintance of the famed Daniel Boone. Boyd Williams, 
brother of Richard, settled about 1816, where Jonathan Brown 
lives, a mile west of town. Thomas Stanford, from Ohio, 
about a mile westerly from town, on land sold to John Uuder- 
hill, where his son Jesse P. Underbill lives. 

In the south-east corner of the township, Thomas Lamb, from 
jS^. C, about 1812 or 1813, and John Bailey, and a few years 
later, Wm. Elliott, of Tenn., Joseph Luce, and Job RatclifF, 
settled on sections 9 and 10, which are now, or were lately 
owned by Adam Oler, Stephen Cox, Elam and Caleb Menden- 
hall, Allen and Wm. S. Lamb, and Lewis S. Cranor. "Wm. 
Starbuck, from N. C, on land now owned by Martin and Milo 
Lamb and Jesse Stevens. Azariah and Hezekiah Williams, 
from Tenn.; on land now owned by Widow Cain, Perry 
Hurst, and James M. Atkinson. Charles Williams, Tenn.; 
afterward, 1830, Philip Robbins; present owners, his sons, 
George W. and Daniel B. Robbins. John Cain, where now 
Milo Lamb resides. 

In the south-west part of the township, Hezekiah Manning, 
from Conn., settled where George Manning lives. Abraham 
Lennington, from Pa., about 1815, on land now owned by 
Stephen Pierce, Richard Smith, Jacob Wilson, Samuel Cromer, 
Daniel Whitesell. John Hart, from Ky., on land now owned 
by Solomon Mendenhall. Jonatlian Adamson, from Tenn., 
on land now owned by Pleasant M. Adamson and Nicholas 
Shaw. Solomon Hodson, where Isaiah H. Hale owns. James 
Ilartup, from 0., present owner, David Petty. Jason Howell, 
about 1816; land now owned by Henry P. Cain. Abel Pew, 
about 1816, on land now owned by the heirs of Daniel 
Shaw. 

In the west and north-west part of the township, Jesse Green- 
street, a Carolinian, from Ky., about 1815, settled on the town- 
ship west line, where Obed Williams resides; Moses Gilmore, 
on land now owned by Wm. Mendenhall; John Gwinn, in 
1815, where now his son Pleasant Gwinn lives. Walter Thorn- 
burg, from Tenn., where Eli B. Barnard resides. Richard and 



PERRY TOWSNHIP. 307 

Daniel Mills, from N. C. in 1804, and from Ohio in 181G, on lands 
now owned by Wilson Pierce, Isaac B. Underbill, and Joseph 
L. Wood. Miles Marshall, of Tenn., and Thomas Carr, of 0., 
on lands now owned by John M. and Merchant B. Williams 
and Jonathan Brewer. Thomas Carr also owned land where 
the heirs of Richard Pugh reside. David Osborn, a Carolinian, 
from O., in 1816, settled on land now owned by John 'N. Dean, 
lately by Thomas B. Williams. John Jordan, who had set- 
tled in 1810 in what is now Boston township, removed in 1815 
to the north-west corner section of this township, where he 
died. The entire section, a part of which was recently owned 
by T. D. Barnett, is now owned by his son Wm. Jordan and 
his sons John W. and George M., and by John P. Jordan, 
nephew of Wm. Jordan. Abont the year 1815, Wm. Fife and 
his son-in-law, Jonathan Thornburg, of Tenn., and Am}^ Hall, 
settled where Jonathan Thornburg lives, on the township north 
line. In 1816, George Ilobson, from Tenn., on land now 
owned by Charity Gwinn and Jonathan Brewer. 

In the north-east part of the township Joseph Jackson set- 
tled early, and later, Allen Judd, wdiere now James Hatchins 
and G. W. Scantland reside. Josiah Johnson, where Ilezekiah 
Hutchins lives. Henry Mullinex, where A. W. Hoggatt re- 
sides. Isaiah Osborn, about 1828, where Edmund Osborn 
lives. Thomas Marshall, about 1818, where his grandson 
Thomas Marshall no"w resides. Thomas Cox, where E. Bias 
resides. Eeubeu Macy, from N. C, on lauds now owned by 
John Charles and John Banks. Samuel and Elihu Swain, 
from Tenn. in 1815, on land now owned by the heirs of Elihu 
Swain, Jun. Isaac Mills, Jesse Jones, Uriah Barnett, and 
Wm. Locke, were early owners of the land afterward owned 
principally by Alva J. Macy, now by his widow, Mary Macy. 

Baldridge, later David Maulsby, settled on land now 

owned l)y IIarve_y and John Lamb. Elihu Swain, Jun., after- 
ward Wm. Maulsby, where Henry Hollingsworth now lives. 

In the east part of the township the following-named persons 
settled: John Davis, from Tenn., who, about 1819, sold to 
Ilezekiah Hutchins; land now owned by Wm. Ballenger. 
Fenton Ililey, where Jesse B. Williams lives. Josiah Johnson, 
afterward Anderson Moore, on land lately owned by Henry Ej, 



308 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Hinshaw and Samuel Moore, now by Samuel McDonald. 
Henry MulUnex, later Zachariah Hodson, where Daniel M. 
Hiatt lives. George D. McPherson, on land now owned by 
Wm. Starbuck. Benj. and John Elmore, from Tenn., a mile 

south-east of town ; land now owned by Burgess, Temple 

Edwards, and others. 

Kobert Canady, in 1819, built a Saw-mill half a mile from 
Economy, on Martin dale's creek, (so named from John Martin- 
dale, an early settler on the stream,) Abel Lomax, master- 
builder. By repairs and rebuilding a mill has been kept 
there until the present time; present owner, John A. Shepard. 
An oil-mill was built at the same place as early as 1830 ; pro- 
prietors, Richard Williams, Wm. Barnard, and Matthew Will- 
iams, and was run six or seven years. About the year 1827, a 
grist-mill was started by Daniel and Kichard Mills and Thomas 
Cox, a mile below town, and was run about ten years. A 
steam grist-mill and saiv-mill were built at Economy about the 
year 1830, by Nathan Proctor, and run about five years. John 
and Larkin Maulsby built, in 1849, a steam saw-mill, and after- 
ward added a corn-cracker. They were run but a few years. 

A Carding -machine, propelled by an inclined plane horse- 
power, was built by Reuben Macy, about 1829, and was in 
operation about four or five years. 

A steam Planing-mill was built in town, in 1867, by Elam 
Osborn and Henry Beard, and a saw-mill was attached in 1870. 

Wm. Locke and Jonathan Macy are named as the earliest 
3Ierchants in the township. Locke kept his store where he 
first settled, IJ miles north-east of where Economy now is. 
Much of his trade was in deer-skins, raccoon skins, rags, gin- 
seng, pork, &c. Macy, who had settled a mile south-west of 
town, kept a small stock 'of goods. Walter Thornburg and 
his son-in-law, Moses Mills, in partnership, afterward estab- 
lished below the hill, on the north-west side of town, a store 
which was continued by them there for several years, and, 
after the death of Mills, by Thornburg and his son John. The 
first store in toiun was kept by Matthew Williams. He had 
been for a short time a competitor of Thornburg, and prefer- 
ring a location on the hill, removed his goods to a hewed log 
building on the corner where Daniel B. Robbins now trades. 



PERRY TOWNSHIP. 309 

After about two years he was succeeded, in the same building, 
by Jonathan Macy, about the year 1828. John Thornburg, 
soon after, removed from " below the hill," to the house on 
the corner opposite, now owned and occupied by the Clarks as 
a store, which he had built for that purpose. He is known to 
have traded in Economy as late as 1843. Hinshaw & Coffin, 
[Wm. H. Hinshaw and Barnabas Coffin,] traded as early as 
1840, and Hinshaw alone for many years afterward. Maulsby 
& Robbins commenced as early as 1845. Wm. Clark, from IST. 
C, in 1860, bought an interest in the store of Barnabas Coffin 
and Thomas Elwood Clark, son of Wm. Clark. In 1863, Coffin 
left, and went to Indianapolis. Present merchants — Daniel B. 
Bobbins, who has been in the business about twenty-live years, 
and T. Elwood Clark and Barzillai II. Clark, brothers, in part- 
nership. 

A Drug Store is kept in town by George "W. Robbins and 
Elisha K. Olney, and another by Mahlon Ballenger. 

A Tannery was established in Economy by Wm. Locke 
about the year 1825. Among the names of those who have 
since carried on business at this establishment are Joshua Can- 
aday, George P. Rupe, Price & Surface, James Stanley, Coffin 
& Hinshaw, and others. Its last proprietor was Wm. Bal- 
lenger. It has recently been discontinued. 

The first resident Physician in the township was Thomas T. 
Butler, who settled in Economy about the year 1826. The 
settlers had been previously served, in great part, by Drs. 
Warner, of Richmond, and Waldo, of Jacksonburg. Among 
those who have succeeded Dr. Butler were Henry Carver, in 
1834, Josiah T. Bohrer, Macy B. Maulsby, George W. Robbins, 
•Caleb K. Patterson, (eclectic,) Thomas Adamson, Royal R. 
Jennings. Drs. G. W. Robbins and Jonathan B. Clark are 
the present practicing physicians. 

Of that class of mechanics first needed in a new country, 
Blacksmiths, Thomas Swain was the earliest, 1^ miles north-east 
of Economy. He was, in 1820, a member of the legislature 
while it met at Cory don, and had to camp in the woods alone 
on his return. John Macy also was an early blacksmith. 

The earliest Religious Society was that of the Friends; most 
of the settlers mentioned as from Tennessee being of that 



310 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

denomination. Their first meeting-house was built of round 
logs, about a quarter of a mile north-west of the present town 
of Economy, in 1816. It is said to have been warmed by 
charcoal and white oak bark, burned on a hearth in the center. 
Some of the lirst members were EHhu Swain, James Warren, 
Richard "Williams, and their wives, Robert Canaday and his 
wife Amy, an exhorter, Charity Mills, David Maulsby, Wm. 
Locke, Thomas Marshall, Henry and Moses Mills, and Charles 
Osborn, the only resident recommended preacher ever here. 
In 1821, a house was built of hewed logs a short distance 
from the former. The society here was called Springfield Meet- 
ing. About the year 1842, the antislavery question caused a 
division of the society. The abolitionists retained the old 
house until it was abandoned, about the year 1850. The 
others built a new house in town, which is still occupied by 
the society ; a portion of the abolitionists having since re- 
united with them. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church and Society was organized at 
an early date. A class was formed in or about the year 1817, 
at John Jordan's, in the north-west corner of the present 
township of Perry ; James Havens being circuit preacher on 
the Whitewater circuit. The early members were John Jor- 
dan, Wm. Jordan, James Hudson, Jesse Comer, and their 
wives, Rachel Ellis, and perhaps a few others. Soon after 
were added Joseph Stanley, James Stanford, and their wives. 
Their meetings were first held at John Jordan's, near the head 
of West river, and at other private houses. Owing, prob- 
ably, to the increase of the number and the consequent ex- 
tension of the territorial bounds of the society, meetings were 
held, it is said, in a log school-house near the town; and 
among the members not above mentioned, were Simon Adam- 
son, Jacob Bowman, George D. McPhersou, Wm. Starbuck, 
Barrett Barnett, Jesse Greenstreet, Daniel Worth. About the 
year 1827, some say — others, later than 1830 — a small frame 
meeting-house was built in Economy, which was dedicated by 
Rev. Wm. Hunt. About 1857 or 1858, the present house was 
built. Among the early preachers after James Havens were 

Wm. Holman, Summerville, Daniel Fraley, Wm. Hunt, 

and Elijah Whitten. This society, too, was disrupted by the 



PERRY TOWNSHIP. 311 

"abolition" question. The radical antislavery members se- 
ceded about the year 1842, and organized as a 

Wesleyan Methodist Society. — Among its members were 
George D. McPherson, Elihu Smith, Ira H. Hutchins, Wra. 
Williams, John Manlsby, John M. Williams. This organiza- 
tion lasted only about three years. Some seven or eight years 
after it had been given up, a new society was formed. 

The Economy Wesleyan Methodist Church was organized 
Sept. 9, 1853. Alexander Haywood was preacher in charge. 
Members wlio composed the church at the time of its organ- 
ization were EHhu Smith and Elizabeth, his wife, Ira H. 
Hutchins and Susannah, his wife, and perhaps others. On the 
same day, Elizabeth Mills, Martha E. Thornburg, and Emma 
Sutton were "received into full connection." Elihu Smith 
was chosen class-leader ; and a few months after, Ira H. Hutch- 
ins, steward. Preachers in charge since the organization : 

A. Haywood, Emsley Brookshire, Harris, Wm. Gladding, 

Aaron Worth, Enoch Marsh, L. C. Beckford, John M. John- 
son, Elijah Coate, John W. Johnson, John Fall, Elijah Coate. 
The Wesleyan Chapel in Economy was built in 1857. 

A church, called Christian Friends, was formed about the 
year 1837, and a house built near the north-east corner of the 
township, on the north line. It is said to have been formed by 
Valentine and Wm. Gibson, of Delaware Co., Ind. Hence 
the members were called Gibsonites. This church had a brief 
existence. About eight years ago the United Brethren formed 
a church here, and occupied the house until they built a new 
one in 1870. 

The United Brethren formed a church about thirty or thirty- 
five years ago near the south-east corner of the township, on 
the south line. Meetings were held for several years in a 
school-house until the present house was built. Robert Mill- 
man, James Wright, Lewis Perry, James Powell, and their 
wives, are the names of members recollected. Preacher then 
in charge, Daniel" Stover; present preacher, James Cook; pre- 
siding elder, John T. Vardeman. 

A Baptist Church was formed in Economy about the year 
1840, perhaps later. It existed but a few years. 

The first School was kept in the Friends' log meeting-house. 



312 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

John Canaday is said to have been the first teacher. He was 
succeeded by Thomas R. Sauford, who was afterward a judge 
in Henry Co. 

Jolin Underhill commenced, in 1819, a classical or high school, 
which he continued, at intervals, for ten or twelve years. The 
present school-house was built in 1868, in which is kept a 
graded school, the higher branches being included in the 
course of instruction. The cost of the building was about 
$7,000. 

The Town of Economy was laid out by Charles Osborn, aa 
proprietor, and the plat recorded July, 1825. At an election 
held at the house of Wm. Barnard, Sept. 8, 1828, Isaiah Os- 
born, Wm. Barnard, Richard Williams, Jonathan Macy, and 
Josiah Osborn were elected trustees. Additions to the town 
plat were made by Charles Osborn in 1829 and 1834. 

Some of the early Justices of the Peace elected in the town- 
ship were Jonathan Macy, (who, perhaps, never served,) Miles 
Marshall, Isaiah Osborn, probably the first in Economy, Absa- 
lom Wright, Wm. Williams. John M. Williams is at pres- 
ent a justice, and has held the office most of the time since 
1837. 

William Locke was born in Granville county, N. C, June 
14, 1787. His father, John Locke, was a soldier in the Revo- 
lutionary war, and a pensioner during the remainder of his 
life. Wm. Locke married, first, Damaris Mills, in 1808, and 
removed in 1815 to Perry township, and settled on a part of the 
land now owned by Mary Macy and her heirs, \\ miles north- 
east of Economy, where he kept the first store in the town- 
ship. Much of his trade was in deer-skins, raccoon skins, 
rags, ginseng, pork, etc. He was a Friend, and took an active 
part in forming the Springfield Meeting. He afterward re- 
moved to Economy, and established a tannery, the first in 
Pe'rry township. After a brief residence there, he returned 
to his farm. He was for several years a director of the State 
Branch Bank, at Richmond. About the year 1837, he again 
removed to Econoniy, where he was for a season, and in other 
business. Eifty years after his marriage, his wife died. A 
year thereafter, in his 73d year, he married Judith Carter, 
with whom he lived about eight years, and died November 3, 



PERRY TOWNSHIP. 313 

1868. He had three sons and seven daughters, as follows : 
Lucretia, born April 19,1809; Charity, born December 13, 
1810; Hannah, born December 27, 1812; married Wm. C. 
Bond, of Clay township ; Elizabeth, born October 13, 1814, 
died at 20; Rachel, born May 26, 1816, married John 
Brooks, of Clay; John Aaron, born May 22, 1819, married 
Charity Brooks, of Clay; Mary Ann, born March 25, 1821, 
married Elzey Storms, and died October 13, 1843 — he re- 
sides in Randolph county ; Levi, who died in infancy ; Da- 
maris, born July 3, 1826, married Elvin Thornburg, a recom- 
mended minister of the Friends ; Wm. Milton, born December 
21, 1828, married Martha Fisher, of Economy, and resides at 
Noblesville, Indiana. 

Charles Osborn removed from Tennessee to Ohio, in 
1816, and in 1819 to the township of Perry, and settled on 
the land on which the town of Economy now stands. In 
1825 he laid out the town, as proprietor, to which he made 
an addition in 1829, and another in 1834. After many years' 
residence there, he removed to Michigan, and a few years 
after to Porter county, Ind. [Dates of birth and death not 
obtained.] His sons were, James, who was married, and died 
in Iowa; Josiah, married, moved to Michigan, and died there; 
John, married, resides in Economy ; Isaiah, married, resided 
there until his decease in 1846 ; Elijah and Gideon, married, 
live in Cass county, Michigan; Charles IST. and Parker, who 
reside in "Wilmington, Ohio; Jordan, Benjamin, deceased. 
Daughters: Sarah, who married James Boniue; Anna, wife of 

Jesse East; Cynthia, who married Singerfuse; i^ar- 

cissa, who died in Economy at the age of 12. In 1831, all 
the children of Charles Osborn were living and were present 
at a dinner at his house. He was a preacher in the society 
of Friends. 

[The names of two of Charles Osborn's children have 
probably been omitted in the above list.] 



314 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 



WASHINGTON" TOWNSHIP. 

This township lies in the south-east part of Wayne county, 
and is one of the six townships into which the county Avas 
divided in 1817 by the county commissioners after the adop- 
tion of the state constitution of 1816. Its length, east and 
west, is 7 miles ; its breadth 6 miles, containing an area of 
about 42 square miles. 

The earliest settlements in the township are believed to have 
been in the north part. Tiiomas Symonds settled December 
6, 1811, about a mile north of where Milton now stands, hav- 
ing cut his way through the woods for 12 miles. There was 
no other settler near. His widow, still living, says, that, for 
six weeks after their arrival, she did not see the face of a 
white woman. Mr. .Symonds was from N. C, and had stopped 
a few months at Cox's settlement, where Kichmond now is. 
His family consisted of himself and his wife. They were 
much annoyed by Indian beggars, and by wild animals that ap- 
proached their cabin by night and by day. In the spring of 
1812, from fear of the Indians, they, like other settlers, left 
their home, and sought safety in the settlements in the vicinity 
of the present city of Richmond, where they remained until 
after the pacification of the Indians in 1814. They were 
obliged to go some 15 miles to mill, until Mr. Symonds 
himself built a mill, which was completed late in the autumn 
of 1814, or early in 1815. His wife once made one of these 
trips to mill, it being deemed safer than to remain at home 
alone. lie died September 30, 1865. His wife is still living 
at Spiceland, Henry county. 

In the north-east part of the township Avere some who 
settled there about the same time as Symonds in the north- 
west part. After the treaties of peace with the Indians, rapid 
progress was made in the settlement of the township. 

In the fall of 1814, Beuj. Beeson, from North Carolina, 
settled 32- miles south of the present town of Milton, on land 
which had been entered in 1812, where he resided until his 
death in 1852, and where his son Benj. F. Beeson resides. 



WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP. 315 

James "Walker, from Tenn., settled in the adjoining county 
of Fayette in 1812, and in 1814 came to this township, where 
he died ahout 40 years ago. The farm is now owned by 
Bezaleel Beeson. He had a large family, of whom only 
James and Prudy remain in the township. In 1814, John 
Wallace, from Ohio, settled 2 miles south of Milton, where 
he died; land now owned by his sons, Oliver, James, and 
John. 

In 1811, Thomas Beard, from 1^. C, brother of John and 
Patrick Beard, settled 2 J miles south-east from town. In 
1815, James Jackson, from IST. C, settled on land adjoining 
Beeson's on the north. He removed about 1840 to Marion 
county, and died there. In 1815, Adam Banks, from Tenn., 
on the Wayne county line. He was a Baptist minister, and 
for several years a justice of the peace, and was famed as a 

hunter. He died about 1843 or 1844. In 1815, Logan, 

on land now owned by Monford G. Beeson. Eli Wright, 
from 'N. C, settled near Benj. Beeson's. He had served in 
the war of 1812 as a ranger in Vincennes and Whitewater 
valley. He w^as a justice of the peace and a member of the 
legislature; land now owned by Sanford Caldwell. 

Others settled in the south-west part of the township, the 
dates of the settlement of the most of whom are not ascer- 
tained. Among them are the followino : 

In 1816, came Micajah and Ximrod Ferguson, from N. C. 
Micajah settled on the land now owned by his nephew, Le- 
land Ferguson, and died in Posey township. Nimrod settled 
on the farm where his widow and his sons John W. and Cas- 
burn reside. He was probably the only pioneer in the county 
who did not enjoy the luxuries of log cabin life. His first 
and only house was built, in his small clearing, of bricks 
made near Milton. It is occupied by his surviving family. 
Thomas Beeson settled on land now owned by Elwood Bee- 
son, on the west line. Harrison Shortridge, (not the first,) 
where Norman Munger resides. Joseph Caldwell, in the 
south-west corner of the township; land now owned by his 
son James. Jehiel Lampson, and later, Jacob Smith, on land 
now owned by G. W. Smith's heirs. Solomon Burkett, on 
land since owned by Eli Elwell and his son Hiram, now by 



316 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Thomas Williams. John Foiilke, on land since owned by 
Matthew Wilson, now by Eli Elwell, who has removed to 
Milton. Joseph Williams, on the west line of the town- 
ship ; land now owned by his son James. Matthew Symonds, 
west part of the township, where he died ; farm now owned 
by Wm. Johnson. David Shay, on west line; land lately 
owned by John Welch, now by Daniel Whitely, Jun. 

In the north-west part of the township, Gideon Myers 
settled about the year 1820. Joab Raines and Samuel Drury 
settled west of Milton ; in 1832, Joseph Gray, and about 1828, 
Isaac and Daniel Whitely. Thomas Piersou, afterward Abra- 
ham Symonds, settled in the north-west corner of the town- 
ship ; land now owned by James Gray and Daniel Heacock. 
Peter Martz, afterward Silas Hiatt, from l!T. C, settled, first, 
where Joseph Gray now owns; next, where Henry Izor lives. 
Moses Cooper settled, in 1817, on land now owned by Jesse 
Murray and his father, Veniali Murray. John Callaway, a 
native of Delaware, in 1814, from Ohio, settled on land first 
owned by Boaz Thorp, lately by Joshua Gresh, now by Henry 
Frazee. A short time after Thorp's arrival, a daughter, 
about three years of age, was taken away by Indians, and 
never recovered. In consequence of this bereavement, he 
soon sold his land to Mr. Callaway, and left the country. 
John Callaway died in Warren county, Ohio, aged 84 years. 
James, son of John Callaway, came with his father, and, in 
1820, settled half a mile west of Milton; afterward removed 
to town, where he still resides. He is the father of John 
Callaway, President of the First !N"ational Bank, Cambridge 
City. John Bell settled on the land now owued by John 
Callaway, of Cambridge City. 

South of Milton, Jehu Wilson, a native of South Carolina, 
from Ohio about 1818, settled 1 mile south of town, on land 
bought of Joel Ferguson, where he resided until his death. 
The farm is now owned by his grandchildren. Jonathan 
Justice, a native of IST. C, settled near Milton, where he died. 
The farm is now owned by Gideon C. Wilson, son of John, 
who was a son of Jehu Wilson. James Cathcart settled on 
the land now owued by Joel Pennington, 1 J miles from Milton. 



WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP. 317 

The following are believed to have settled during or soon 
after the war of 1812 : James Shaw^, 2^ miles south of Milton, 
where Isaac Kinsey lives; John Shaw on the adjoining farm, 
now owned by Jeremiah W. Swalford ; John Knipe, one mile 
south-east of town, the farm now owned by Henry Hoover ; 
Reuben Bronson, 2J miles south-west of Milton, on the farm 
lately owned by Alfred Ilankins. Bronson was an early nur- 
sery-man. 

On the east side of the river, Jacob Boyer settled where now 

his sou Jacob lives. Aaron White, where now his son Richard 

I resides. Isaiah Drury, in 1816, on the farm now owned by 

Charles H. Moore. Enoch Warman, on the land now owned Ijy 

Joseph Kimmel, Thomas A. Moore, and David Sutton. Geo. 

I Beeler, on tow- nship line ; land now owned by Wm. Beeler. 

Wm. G. Reynolds, on land lately owned by Samuel Jacobs. 

Jacob Oldacre, w^here Mr. Sowerbcer lives. Joseph Swaflbrd 

I where David Hibbel resides. Wm. Swafford, on the land now 

I owned by Wm. Kimmel. Jacob Kimmel settled early 2 miles 

I east of Milton ; lands now owned by his sons William and 

George and the heirs of Jacob Kimmel. Abraham Schock, 

on land/ now owned by David Sutton and Benj. Conover's 

heirs. ^John Conover, a mile south-east of town ; land now 

owned by Sarah A. Wilson and John Brown. Joseph IIol- 

lingsworth, on land lately owned by J. Good, where now 

Robert Cornthwaite lives. Edward Emerson, from Vermont, 

about 1812, settled where his son Thomas now lives. He 

served in the war of 1812. His sons, James N., William, and 

Oliver P., reside in New Boston, 111. 

In the valley of Green's Fork, the following named persons 
were early settlers : Samuel, Jesse, Levi, and William Willetts, 
brothers. On the east side, Samuel settled where Wm. Kerlin 
i lives ; Jesse, where Peter Wisler lives ; on the west side, 
Levi, where Caleb Lewis lately lived ; and William, on the 
land now owned by P. Schloniger, and occupied by Ging- 
rich. William and Levi died on their farms. Levi was an 
early justice of the peace. Jesse was in 1829, and for several 
years after, a county commissioner. He removed to New 
Boston, Mercer Co., 111., and died there, at the age of 66 
years. Elisha, his son, lives near where his father settled ; 



318 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Nelson, son of Elisha, three-fourtlis of a mile south. J. B. and 
I. B. Willetts, son of Eli, a brother of Elisha, reside on the west 
side; and adjoining them on the west, Solomon Reese settled 
where he died; land now owned by Wm. Vanbuskirk. Caleb 
Lewis, mentioned above, had been a member of the legis- 
lature. His land is owned by his heirs. Thomas Mar- 
latt settled on the east side, where his son Harrison lives, 
and has latterly removed to near the mouth of the Fork, 
and lives with his son Albert. Of his other four sons, James 
lives on the west side of the stream, where Wm. Swafibrd 
early settled; Thomas has removed to New Boston, HI., and 
is a United Brethren preacher; Washington, to Manhattan, 
Kansas, a Methodist minister; Abraham N., a Methodist 
minister, at Rushville. His four daughters are: Rebecca, 
wife of Washington Wolf, and Evaliue, wife of Solomon 
Wolf, who reside at ISTew Boston, 111. ; Mary, wife of El ill u 
Cecil, at Smithfield, Ind. ; and Ellen, wife of Jacob Walker, 
at Newcastle. Conover settled on the east side, on land now 
owned by his William. 

In 1820, Wm. McGrew settled on the west side of Green's 
Fork, on land now owned by Dietz. [Sk.] 

In the north-east part of the township, Joshua Lamott and 
Thomas Kelly own nearly a whole section ; tirst owner not 
ascertained. Abraham Hathaway settled on the land now 
owned by his son McCarty and other heirs. Henry Hart- 
man settled where he still lives. David Smith, where A. J. 
Smith resides. 

Along the valley of JSToland's Fork were the following : 
East side, Wm. Beeson, where Stephen Crow now is. Philip 
Burris, on land now owned by L. M. Jones and T. and N. 
Burris. Moses Nethercutt, on land now owned by Philip 
Jenkins. Rudolf Waymire, on land owned by Samuel 
Clevinger, of Abington, David Waymire, south of Rudolf, 
on land owned by John Little. The north half of section 16, 
[school lot,] lying principally west side of the Fork, was sold 
to Dickson Hurst, and is now owned by Charles N. McGrew 
and Morgan Williams; the south half to John Doddridge, 
now owned by his sons, Philip and Isaac. 



WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP. 319 

A largo portion of the south-east part of the township was 
early settled, and is still owned, by the Doddridge, Ilurst, 
and Jenkins families. John Doddridge, from Pa., settled in 
1814, on the east side of the Fork, where his widow, Avis 
Doddridge, still resides, with her son David, on the east line 
of the township. Their sons are Isaac, Philip, John, and 
David. Their daughters were Phebe, wife of James Baker, 
who lives in Illinois ; Eliza, wife of Wm. Keam ; Sarah, wife 
of John T. McMullen, a Methodist minister; and Nancy, who 
married Frank McMullen, and resides in Missouri. Eliza 
and Sarah are both deceased. Two or three children of 
John Doddridge died young. Isaac, Philip, and David re- 
side in the township. David Jenkins, a brother-in-law of 
John Doddridge, in 1814, settled on the section south of 
Doddridge's, where he died. The land is now owned by his 
son Isaac, and Benj. Pierce, son-in-law of David Jenkins. 
Dickson Ilurst, in or about 1820, settled on the county line, 
near the Fork, east side ; the land now owned by his son-in- 
law, Henry Sweet; afterward removed to where Isaac Dod- 
dridge now lives, and died there in 1858. His children were 
Lucinda, wife of Henry Sweet; Mary Ann, wife of Wm. A. 
Rifner, of Henry county; William, east side of the Fork; 
Melinda, wife of Charles IST. McGrrew ; Alfred, who lives in 
Iowa. John Ilurst settled where Gilbert Thomas lives. His 
sons were, Benedict, who is dead ; Sanford, in the south-east 
corner of the township; John M., west side of the Fork; 
land now owned by his heirs ; Dickson, deceased; and Elijah, 
who settled on the west side of the Fork; Isaac, who moved 
to Flat Rock; Bennett, who died ip Madison county. His 
daughters were, Sylvia, wife of Robert Watt, who lives east 
of the creek ; Cjnithia, wife of Joseph Howard, who lived 
where Thomas Marlatt now lives — both dead ; Mary Ellen, 
wife of John Orr, of Connersville. Mr. Hurst had other 
daughters. 

On the east side of Whiteivater river, below the mouth of 
Green's Fork, were Jacob Grewell, a very early settler, where 
James Ely lives, on the township line; Robert Diever, on 
land now owned by Henry Eliason; James McLane, where 
John HoUingsworth lately lived; land now owned by the 



320 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

heirs of John M. Hurst. James Hannah settled on land now 
owned by Isaac Doddridge. His sous were Samuel; [Sk.] 
Abraham, who is said to have been an early teacher ; Hugh 
L., who owned the old homestead, and died there in 1860 ; 
and William, a lawyer at Laporte. Fernandes, son of Hugh 
L., has removed to Chicago. Peter Wisler, after a residence 
of ten or more years in Jackson, near Germantown, settled 
where he now resides. Two of his sons, David and Peter, 
live with him on the farm. His other sons are Rudolf, who 
lives south of Milton ; Jacob, at Shieldsville, in Hamilton 
county; and John, at New Lisbon, Henry county. 

On the west side of the river, Joseph Lower settled early 
where his daughter, widow Clark, resides. Benj. Harvey, 2 
miles south-east of Milton, where his son John lives. John 
Kinley, on the land now owned by his son, John W. Kiuley, 
Thomas Hardin, where Mark D. Beeson lives. 

The first grist-mill in the township was built by Thomas 
Symouds in 1814, a mile north of Miltou. It was afterward 
owned, successively, by Mordecai Mendenhall, Jacob Schock, 
Joseph Stubbs, and others ; and a mill was continued there 
until. about twelve or fifteen years ago. One is also said to 
have been built by Samuel Shortridge, on Green's Fork, 4 
miles east of Milton. A saw-mill was afterward built there, 
and one of each has been continued to the present time. 
They came early into the hands of Jacob CruU, and are now 
owned by Gideon Zaner. John and "Christopher Miller, 
about the year 1820, built a grist-mill on Green's Fork, 4 
miles below Milton. Neither remains. Jesse Brewer, about 
1830, built on Green's Fork, 3 miles south-east of Miltou, a 
grist-mill which was burned, and not rebuilt. The next mill 
in the township is believed to be the " river mill," at Milton, 
built by Jacob Sinks. It has since passed through the hands, 
successively, of Daniel Sinks, Swaffbrd, Kimmel & Co., John 
Ross, Levin Warren, and Jonathan Petty, to Wm. H. Moore, 
its present proprietor. This mill has the capacity to manu- 
facture 100 barrels in twenty-four hours. The Canal Mill 
was built in 1846 by Jonathan Macy, Henry Izor, and Daniel 
Sinks. Milton Hiatt soon bought the interest of Sinks. In 
1852, it passed to Lewis B. Morrison, Thomas Nevvby, and 



WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP. 321 

Henry Izor. In 1854, Izor sold out, since which time it has 
passed through the firms of Morris, Myers & Co., and several 
others, into the hands of its present proprietors, Bozier & Carr. 
Its capacity is 150 barrels in twenty-four hours. 

There was a Saw-mill at the grist-mill of the Millers; and 
one was built at the river mill, which still runs. A water saw- 
mill was built about forty years ago by Samuel Curamack, at 
the mouth of Green's Fork, and did a pretty large business. 
Another was built about twenty years ago by Samuel Stokes, 
as some say, and owned also by George Boden, a mile north of 
Milton, and afterward converted into a steam mill. It has 
since been removed to Beeson's Station, where it is run by a 
portable engine, and is owned by Nathan H. Cummack. 

A Carding Machine^ said to have been the first in the town- 
ship, was built by Jonathan Hunt, about the year 1828, a mile 
north of Milton, and was continued many years. A carding 
machine was put up also in the north-east part of the town- 
ship, on Green's Fork, by Williams Petty, as is supposed, to 
which cloth-dressing machinery was added by Fish & Venable. 
On this site, Edward Wagoner has at present a saw-mill, a 
clover huller, and other machinery. Samuel Curamack built 
a carding machine and fulling mill near his saw-mill. Some 
ten or twelve years afterward, it was changed to a woolen fac- 
tory, and run by him a number of years, and removed by 
Nathan H. Cummack to Milton. It was much improved and 
enlarged, and conducted by a manufacturing company, and 
took the name of Milton Woolen Mills. The proprietors, in 
1866, were Nathan H. Cummack and John Ilollingsworth. In 
1868, Caleb J. Morris became a partner. In 1869, Curamack 
retired, and George W. Callaway and Richard Wallace & Co. 
came in; and the association took the name of Milton Woolen 
31111 Company. In December, 1869, Ilollingsworth sold his 
interest to Richard White. Two sets of machinery are em- 
ployed in the manufacture of cassimeres, plain and plaid jeans, 
satinets, plain and plaid flannels, blankets, and stocking yarn. 
Attached is a knitting factory for making ladies and gentlemen's 
hose. Sales annually about $60,000. 

Roosier Drill Manufactory. — Joseph Ingels, patentee of the 
Hoosier Drill, commenced the manufacture in 1859, by horse 
24 



322 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

power, and made the tirst year 25. In 1867, a stock company 
was formed, composed of Isaac Kinsey, Alexander Jones, and 
Aaron Morris, by whom the business is still continued. Joseph 
Ingels is general agent for the company. They manufacture 
one and two-horse wheat drills, corn drills, and double-shovel 
iron cultivators. They give employment to between 40 and 
50 hands; and their annual sales have averaged for the last 
four years, about $114,000. 

Thomas Reagan kept the first Store in the town, one block 
north of the main corner, the year not remembered; probably 
soon after the town was laid out, which was done in 1824. 
Samuel Pierce commenced soon after on the opposite [west] 
side of Main street. John Wright & Son, it is believed, next 
opened a store on the corner where now John Brown & Son 
trade; and after them, Joshua Willetts and James Antrim, in 
partnership. Elijah Coffin commenced in 1829. Among the 
numerous firms since that time, and down to 1845, were the 
following; the order and dates of their establishment respect- 
ively are not remembered : John Talbot, Moore & Hiatt, 
Elliott, Hannah & Meredith, Sinks & Talbot, E. P. & H. Jus- 
tice, Mary & Sarah Roberts, Jesse Hiatt, Hopkins & Hiatt, 
Benj. Elmer, Shipley L. Foulke. Present merchants: Dry 
Goods — Jones & Gresh, Warren & Myers, Richard Wallace & 
Co., and Milton Woolen Mills Company. Grocers — John 
Brown & Son, Michael, Jones & Gresh [Morgan Michael, 
Franklin Jones, Henry Gresh.] 

David G. Kern established a Drug Store in 1844, and has con- 
tinued it until the present time. Another has been established 
the present year by Dr. Joel Pennington. 

Dr. Joel Pennington, the first resident Physician in the town- 
ship, settled in Milton, in 1825, and is still there in practice 
with Isaac F. Svvainey as a partner. Other present practicing 
physicians are Benj. F. Witnier, and Allison B. Bradbury. 

Wm. Harris, Samuel Walker, and Jacob Y , were early 

blacksmiths in Milton. Enoch Maudlin, George Wirick, Wm. 
B. Unthank, and Richard J. Hubbard, early carpenters. Joel 
and Mordecai Hiatt and Charles H. Moore were early saddlers 
and harness makers. Early tailors — John Conrad, Harvey P. 
Irvin, Wm. Williams. Henry J. and David G. Kern, from 



WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP. 323 

Pa., came to Milton in 1839, and commenced the tailoring 
business. In 1844, David retired, and commenced the drug 
business, as above stated. Henry still continues the business 
of merchant tailor. Enoch Maudlin and Charles Wright were 
early wagon-makers ; the present are Peter Warren and Wm. 
Ferris. First shoemakers— John Maze, Simeon Hubbard ; the 
present, John D. Wallis, Elias Moore, Jacob Noll, Adam F. 
Spangler. 

The first Religious Society in the township was formed by 
the Friends at Milford, a half mile north of Milton, about the 
year 1819, called the Milford 3feeting. Some of its members 
resided in Jackson township. Meetings were first held in a 
log house. Among their early members were Thomas 
Symonds, Jonathan Justice, John Kinley, John Bell, Aaron 
Morris, Matthew Symonds, Silas Hiatt, Henry Thornburg ; 
and later, Mordecai Hiatt, Benajah Hiatt, Aaron White, 
Charles H. Moore, Richard J. Hubbard. A few years after 
the formation of their society, they built a frame house, where 
their meetings have been held to the present time. Among 
their early preachers have been John Kinley, Benajah Hiatt, 
Margaret White, Annie Moore, Beuj. Fulghum, Louisa, his 
wife, and John Miles. 

In 1828, a separation of the Milford Meeting took place ; 
and those known as Hicksites formed a new society, which 
also was called Milford 3Ieeting, and built a frame house in the 
lower part of the town of Milton. Their early members were 
Matthew Symonds, Aaron Morris, John Morris, Henry Thorn- 
burg, John Ferris, Jonathan Justice, Silas Hiatt, Bethuel 
Coffin, Daniel and Isaac Whitely, and others. 

The 31ethodists [Episcopal] are said to have formed a society 
about the year 1820, and built a log meeting-house 7 miles 
south-east from Milton. It is probable, however, that a class 
was formed there several years earlier. Among the early 
members of this church were Philip Doddridge, John Dod- 
dridge, John Spahr, and their wives, Joseph Lower, Joseph 
Williams, Thomas Beard, David Waymire; also, Michael 
Helm and his wife, John Henwood, and Isaac Weekly and 
their wives. 

About the year 1825, for the accommodation of the mem- 



324 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

bers of the above society residing near its western bounds, 
they built a hewed log house about 5 miles below Milton on 
the west side of the river. Some twelve or more years after, 
they built on Lower's land a frame house, called Lower's 
Chapel, which has since been named Havens Chapel, probably 
in honor of James Havens, an early Methodist minister in this 
part of the state. Among their members were Joseph Lower, 
Alexander Walters, John Elliott. 

James Havens, John Burns, Elijah Whitten, Benj. Lawrence, 
A. W. Elliott, and John Strange are remembered as among 
the early Methodist preachers. The last named is believed to 
have labored here as early as 1 812. 

About the year 1846, a Methodist Church was formed in 
Milton. John W. Sullivan, an early preacher, formed the 
class, of which Thomas D. Axe, James Swafibrd, Grandy Bell, 
Linten, and their wives, and John Walker, were mem- 
bers; John Zell, Alexander Jones, Joshua Gresh, and Peter 
Warren and their wives, a few years later. Dr. John Bell and 
John Zell formed the first Sabbath school in the town. Mr. 
Zell was from the time of its formation for many j^ears its 
superintendent. Among the preachers of this society have 
been Stiver, Seth Smith, Eliphaz Miller. Their first meet- 
ing-house, a frame building, in the west part of the town, was 
built about the year 1846. 

Franklin Church, about 2| miles east from Milton, was organ- 
ized June 27, 1840, some of whose members had belonged to a 
society called "Newlights." The following named persons 
are believed to have been members at, or soon after the organ- 
ization : Wm. G. Reynolds, Caleb Lewis, Wm. McGrew, Wm. 
Svvafford, and their families ; Mary Wharton, wife of Richard 
Wharton, and their children ; Jacob Boughner, Jacob and 
Amos II. Oldake, Wra. Kerlin, and their wives; Jane, Ruth, 
and Mary Willetts, and Eli Willetts' wife. Oflicers— Wm. G. 
Reynolds, elder; Milton Reynolds, Wm. Kerlin, deacons; 
Caleb Lewis, standing clerk. Daniel Winder, first preacher; 
next, A. Harlan, Samuel K. Hoshour. 

The United Brethren have a church in the north-east corner 
of the township. The date of its organization and the names 
of its early members are not ascertained. 



(TB) 



F^ 



[m] 



^ 




WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP. 325 

The Toion of Milton was laid ont by John Boll as proprietor, 
and the plat and description recorded July 5, 1824. A num- 
ber of additions were made by the following named persons : 
Thomas Symonds, Benajah Hiatt, Jonathan Justice, Elijah 
Coffin, the date not ascertained. Thomas Symonds and others, 
Dec. 5, 1825, and March 31, 1827. Jonathan Justice, July 6, 
1829. Jacob Sinks, July 3, 1838. Jonathan Justice laid out 
another, Oct. 6, 1838, which was recorded March 23, 1839. 
James Brown, Feb. 8, 1847 ; recorded Feb. 16, 1847. 

Biographical and Genealogical. 

Thomas Beard, a brother of John, Patrick, and Jesse Beard, 
elsewhere noticed, was born in Randolph Co., N. C, and came 
to this county in the fall of 1811, and settled on the west side 
of Whitewater river, about a mile below the mouth of Green's 
Fork, in what is now "Washington township, on a farm now 
owned by Bezaleel Beeson. He was one of the first few set- 
tlers within the present limits of the township, and had a 
thorough experience of pioneer life. He " cut his way" for his 
team from where Abington now is, through the wilderness. 
He had not been long at his new home when the Indian alarms 
commenced. He received a visit from Judge Martin, Samuel 
Jobe, and Isaac Dyer, who came to warn him and his neigh- 
bors, who had increased to the number of about half a dozen, 
of their danger, and advised them to leave immediately, or to 
" fort." Mr. Beard, unwilling to remove his efiects, or to leave 
them exposed, resolved to remain. Four of the six, however, 
determined to leave. The three men went home, and returned 
with ten or twelve others, with guns and rifles, to assist in 
building a fort. The cabin of Mr. Beard was taken into the 
inclosure, in which three block-houses were built. The three 
families were crowded into this single cabin. This fort was 
afterward adopted as one of those in which the government 
kept small garrisons. This fort was never attacked ; but near 
the fort next below, two young men were shot down, and 
although but about one hundred yards from the fort, they 
were scalped before the Indians could be driven off by the 
pickets. Mr. Beard was a member of the first board of county 
commissioners elected in the county. They met at Salisbury 



326 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

ill February, 1817. He resided on his farm where he first settled 
until his death. He had eight children, the eldest of whom 
was an only son, John, the subject of the following notice. 

John Beard, son of Thomas Beard, came with his father 
from North Carolina, where he was born Jan. 4, 1795. In the 
spring of 1816, three months after he attained his majority, he 
cast his first ballot for delegates to the convention that framed 
the first constitution of the state. He was a few years after, 
though young, elected a justice of the peace. There being 
little litigation, his oflicial business Avas chiefly the posting of 
stray horses, and in the absence of the minister, marrying some 
of the young people, with whom, being himself young, he was 
rather a favorite. For this service no charge was ever made 
nor fee received. There having been for several years an 
unusual amount of sickness, from which his family had greatly 
suffered, and hoping to find a more healthful locality, he fol- 
lowed some of his friends to Montgomery county, and settled, 
in the fall of 1823, near Crawfordsville, a new town just laid 
out, where he still resides. In 1827, he was elected a repre- 
sentative from that county in the legislature, and, with a single 
exception, was continued in one or the other branch, for fifteen 
consecutive years, most of the time in the senate. Of all the 
members with whom he served the first term, but one besides 
himself is now living; and he is a citizen of Wayne county — 
John Jones, of Center township. He attained a high reputa- 
tion as a legislator. Bills for the abolition of imprisonment 
for debt; liberal exemptions of property from liability to exe- 
cution ; investing the governor with power to commute capital 
punishment for imprisonment for life, and the free school sys- 
tem received his active and efiicieut support. He rendered 
very effective service in the passage of the bill for the con- 
struction of the Wabash and Erie Canal. The most formid- 
able opposition to this measure came from James Rariden, a 
representative from Wayne county; the other two members, 
Wm. Elliott and John Finley, being friendly to the measure. 
In 1833, Mr. B. being then in the senate, a bill to incorporate 
a state bank had passed the house, and was sent to the senate. 
The great loss sustained by the general government from the 
old State Bank at Vincennes with her branches, induced Mr. 



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WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP. 327 

Beard and other senators to oppose it ; and it was defeated by 
a single vote. But believing that the people were determined 
on having a bank, he oftered a resolution, which was passed, 
providing for the report, at the next session, of a plan designed 
more cft'ectually to secure the public against loss. The meas- 
ure \vas a complete success. The advantages to the people of 
this state of that institution are well remembered b}' the oldest 
citizens of the state. 

In 1841, Mr. Beard was appointed by President Harrison to 
the office of Receiver of Public Moneys at the land-office at 
Crawfordsville ; in consequence of which, he resigned his office 
of senator two years before the expiration of the term. He 
held the office until after the accession of Mr. Van Buren to 
the presidency ; and in 1846 he was returned to the senate. 
The remainder of his legislative career was no less successful 
than the former part had been. Several measures of great 
public importance adopted during his last term in the senate, 
were largely indebted for their success to the influence which 
he had acquired in that body. Although Mr. Beard many 
years ago ceased to be a resident of the county, he is remem- 
bered and esteemed by many of its old citizens — some of them 
his associates in the legislature. This fact, together with that 
of his having been one of the earliest settlers of the county, for 
which he still entertains a warm regard, seems to justify a com- 
pliance with the expressed wishes of his old friends that his 
name be given a conspicuous place in our county's history. 

Benjamin Beeson was born in Guilford county, ]^. C. He 
was married to Dorcas Starbuck; and in 1814 he settled in 
Washington township, 3 miles south of Milton, on the farm 
on which he resided until his death in 1852, and on which his 
son, Benj. Franklin, now resides. He was an early justice of 
the peace. The following are the names of his children, the 
first two of whom were born in Carolina : 1. Bczaleel, who mar- 
ried, first, Anna Hoover, and had four children, three now 
living ; married, second, Phebe Bobbs, who has a son. 2. 0th- 
niel. [Sk.] 3. Templeton, who resides near the line of the 
township, in Fayette county. 4, 5. Delilah and Rachel, who 
died leaving families. 6. Gulielma, married, and lives in 
Hamilton county. 7. Benjamin F., living on the homestead. 



328 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

8. Amanda M., who married Thomas Emerson, and is dead. 

9. Claims D.,wh.o lives in the township. 10. Charles G^.,who 
died at 21. Mrs. Dorcas, widow of Benj. Beeson, lives with 
her son, Benjamin F. 

Othniel Beeson, son of Benjamin, was born in jSTorth 
Carolina, May 7, 1813, and came, when young, with his 
father's family to "Washington township, in which he has re- 
sided until the present time. He was in 1838 elected a justice 
of the peace; in 1850, a delegate to the constitutional con- 
vention; in 1858, a state senator for 4 years; re-elected in 
1862, and again in 1870. lie married in "Washington, Eliza- 
beth Whissler. Their children are, Monford G., who mar- 
ried Louisa Harvey, and resides in the south-west part of the 
township ; Helena ; Barbara, who married Franklin Y. 
Thomas, of Posey, Fayette county ; Amanda N. 

Benajah Hiatt, second son of "Wm. Hiatt, was born in 
North Carolina, and was married to Elizabeth White. In 
1824 he removed to this county, and settled near ISFilton. 
He was the first saddler in the township, and had a shop 
in a part of his dwelling. After a few years, he devoted his 
attention wholly to farming. He had 6 children, who settled 
in this county: 1. JVaomi, wife of Elijah Coffin. 2. Mordecai, 
who married Rhoda Dicks, in N. C. ; removed to Milton in 1827, 
commenced business as a saddler, and continued it about 
25 years, when he removed to his farm near town, which he 
conducted about 16 years ; and in 1868 removed to Richmond, 
where he now resides. He had 9 children, besides 3 who died 
in infancy and childhood: Elizabeth D., wife of Samuel F. 
Fletcher, in Richmond. Benajah W., who married Martha 
Ann Wilson, and lives in Kansas. Semina, wife of Dr. Wm. 
P. Waring, Richmond. Martha W., wife of Joshua Moffitt, 
Thorutown, Ind. Jesse D., who married Louisa Woodward, 
and moved to Springdale, Kansas. Wm. J., who married 
Eliza Smith, of Indianapolis, and is a merchant in Richmond. 
Francis Henry, unmarried ; resides at Springville, Kansas. 
3. Anna, second daughter of Benajah Hiatt, married Eli 
Unthank ; they live at Spiceland. 4. John, who married Re- 
becca Unthank; they live at Spiceland. 5. Esther G., wife 
of Joseph Dickinson, both living and residing in Richmond. 








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WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP. 329 

6. Hannah F., wife of Charles Dickinson, brother of Joseph, 
and lives at Spiceland. 

"William Hiatt, who remained in North Carolina, had 9 
children who reached mature age, all of whom, except one, 
came to this county: 1. Prudence, wife of James Stanley, who 
settled in Ohio, both still living, aged about 92. 2. Joel, who 
settled at Milton, about 1827. His son, Allen, came in 1824 or 
1825; was first a potter, afterward a merchant at Knightstown 
and at Anderson a few years, and for many years at Milton, 
of the firms of Moore & Hiatt, and Hopkins and Hiatt. Isom, 
another of his sons, removed west. 3. Benajah, subject of the 
foregoing sketch. 4. Rachel, wife of Wm. Kersey, who settled 
south of Dublin, now in Washington township. A son, Vier- 
ling Kersey, is a physician in Richmond. Another son, also a 
physician, resides 3 miles east of Richmond, and is also a farmer. 
5. Silas, who married Anna Clary, and settled one mile south- 
west of Milton, and died at Milton. 6. Isom, married, and 
lives in Ohio. 7. Esther, wife of Jesse Evans, both living 2 
miles west of Richmond. 8. Amor, who married Achsah A\^il- 
lis and lives in Hamilton county. 9. Rebecca, wife of Wm. 
Unthank, Spiceland. 

Jesse Hiatt, son of Eleazar Hiatt, came, when young, with 
his father, from North Carolina to Ohio in 1815, and thence to 
Richmond in the winter of 1818-19. He was for about five 
years a clerk in the store of Hiatt & Moore, in Milton, and, in 
1840, commenced trade for himself, and continued until 1860. 
In 1861 he removed to Dublin, where he is still in business with 
his son, Wm. F. He married Margaret Ann Fletcher. He has 
four children: William F., who married Frances ]SI. Lawrence, 
daughter of Edmund Lawrenc^, formerly a county commis- 
sioner and a member of the legislature. Charles E., who 
married Ella Pike, and is on a farm in Henry county, adjoin- 
ing Jackson. Frank F., at Earlham College, and Sarah Anna, 
aged 11 years. 

Richard J. Hubbard, son of Jeremiah Hubbard, was born 
in jSTorth Carolina, and was married to Sarah Swain, Novem- 
ber 26, 1826, and in the fall of 1828, removed to Milton, where 
he now resides. He is by trade a carpenter. He has taken 
an active interest in political affairs. About the year 1834, he 
was elected a representative in the state legislature, and re- 



330 HISTORY or WAYNE COUNTY. 

elected at the next three successive elections. He belonged to 
the "Whig party; but in 1848 joined the Free Soil party in 
support of Martin Van Buren and Charles F. Adams, the 
presidential nominees of the Buifalo convention, by which 
party he was nominated as a candidate for Congress. He has 
had a life-long connection with the societ}' of Friends. He 
had twelve children, five sons and seven daughters, none of 
whom died until nearly full grown ; and nearly all of them 
attained to manhood and womanhood. Four of his sons 
served in the late Union army, two of whom died as veterans 
in the service. Mr. Hubbard has a brother at I^s^ewcastle, But- 
ler Hubbard, late recorder of Henry county, and two sisters 
and a daughter who are ministers in the society of Friends. 
He has a second wife. 

William McGrew, a native of Kentucky, moved from Ohio, 
and settled about 1814 four miles east from Milton. He was 
a soldier under General Harrison in the war of 1812. He died 
of cholera, in Iowa, in 1851, while on a visit, with his wife, to 
their children in that state. Their children were: 1. Lewis, 
who married Ann Highfield, removed to Iowa, and died there. 
2. Isabella, wife of Charles Myers; both deceased. 3. John, 
married, and resides at Muscatine. 4. Polly, wife of John 
Scott, who is dead; she resides at Carmel, Hamilton county. 
5. Rachel, wife of B. Scott, and died in Illinois. 6. Charles, 
who married Melinda Hurst, and lives about 5 miles south-east 
from Milton. 7. Elizabeth, wife of Dr. Whitmer, of Milton. 
8. Melinda, wife of Jonathan Fertlsh, Carmel. 9. Letitia, 
wife of James Morris, Upland. 10. James B. married Huldah 
A. Welliver, and is postmaster, Dublin. 11. Hannah, wife of 
John Ewing, Wabash. 12. Lindsey married Sarah Zell, and 
lives in Milton. 

Charles H. Moore was born October 24, 1806, in Person 
county, N. C, and at the age of 10 years removed to Guilford 
county. In 1829, he removed to Milton, and engaged in the 
saddle and harness making business. In 1834, in company 
with Joel Hiatt, he went into the dry goods trade and the 
saddling business, in which thc}^ continued until 1841, since 
which time he has lived on his farm half a mile east of town. 
He is an esteemed citizen and an exemplary member of the 
society of Friends. In 1839, he married Marcia White, 



WAYNE TOWNSHIP. 331 

daughter of Aaron White. Their children, besides one who 
died in infancy, are: Thomas Albert, Mary Anne, Morris 
Henry, Deborah W., Elizabeth W., Marcia F. 

Joel Pennington was born in Huntingdon county, Pa., 
February 11, 1799. He removed to Springboro',Ohio, in 1818, 
where he married Ann Matthews, September 8, 1820. He 
studied medicine at Springboro' and Centerville ; took his 
first course of lectures in 1832 or 1883, and graduated at 
Ohio Medical College in 1847. He settled at Milton in Octo- 
ber, 1825, where he has practiced his profession with success 
for forty-six years. He has probably had a longer practice 
in the county than any other physician now living. Both 
as a professional man and as a citizen, he has ever enjoyed 
the confidence and esteem of the community. 



WAYNE TOWNSHIP. 

"Wayne was one of the six townships formed after the 
adoption of the first state constitution. It probably con- 
tained about one-sixth part of the territory of the couut3^ 
In forming Union county, in 1819, the greater part of Harri- 
son was taken into that county, and the remainder was after- 
ward annexed to Wajme township. By the formation of 
Boston and Abington, Wayne was reduced to its present 
dimensions. It is 7 miles wide on its south line, and about 
6f miles on its north line, and is 8 miles in length, north and 
south, making an area of a little less than 55 square miles. 
It is watered, mainly, by the Whitewater river and its three 
branches, or forks. East Fork enters it centrally on its east 
line ; Middle Fork near the north-east corner, and the two 
joining about half a mile above the city. The West Fork, 
from Randolph county, enters the township directly north 
from Richmond, and unites with the Whitewater just above 
the railroad bridge. The Elkhorn, from Ohio, crosses the 
south-east corner of the township. Short creek, a small 
stream, running a south-westerly direction, enters the White- 
water near the south line of the township. Lick creek, run- 



332 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

ning south nearly the whole length of the township near its 
west line, empties into the Whitewater near the corner of 
Ahington township. ' 

Most of the earlier inhabitants of this county settled within 
the present limits of Wayne township ; and as the names of 
the greater portion of them have been given in our history 
of the early settlements, few of them will be repeated here. 

Thomas Roberts, from North Carolina, settled on land now 
adjoining the city of Richmond, where he died, leaving the 
homestead in possession of his youngest son, Jonathan, who 
still resides on it. Walter, another son, in 1816, one mile 
west of Dover, where he now resides. 

Benjamin Kirk and his son Isaiah resided on lands now 
owned by David Railsback. A part of them has been sold 
in small parcels and improved, and is known as "Linden 
Hills." 

Samuel Cook, a native of S. C, settled about the year 1828, 
on the place where Mark E. Reeves resides, near Richmond, 
and died in 1839, aged 66, on the place now occupied by his 
son Elisha. 

Wm. Harvey, from JST. C, a single man, came early, and 
worked b}' the day for farmers. After a few years he mar- 
ried a daughter of Samuel Charles, and settled on the farm 
where he now resides, 2 miles south-east from Richmond. 
Gasper Koons, of German descent, settled about 2| miles 
south-east of the city ; the land now owned by his heirs. He 
died in 1820, aged 61 years. 

Josiah Moore, from Ohio in 1816, purchased a farm of 
John McLane, where he resided many years, sold his farm, 
removed to Richmond, where his wife died, and a few years 
after, himself also, at an advanced age. Solomon Horney, 
Sen., from N. C, in 1814, lived on the farm near which he 
entered, until his decease in 1865, about 1^ miles south-east 
from Richmond. Robert Chapman was an early settler ; 
bought a farm near the present Water Cure establishment, 
where he died in 1850, and where his son George lately re- 
sided. 

Micajah Henley, from N". C, in 1812, settled on the farm 
now owned by his son Samuel, 2 miles south-east of Rich- 



WAYNE TOWNSHIP. 333 

mond, where he died in 1857, aged 72 years. His children 
were Mary, John, Kebecca, Naomi, Martha (deceased), wife 
of Joseph E. Strattan, Samuel, Henry, Gulielma, who married 
Mordecai Parry, and died in 1849. John Pool, from N". C, 
settled in 1808 where Phineas Mather lives, 2 miles east from 
Richmond. He died May 26, 1865, aged about 88 years. He 
had ten children ; only three now living. 

Michael Harvey, in 1809, where Nathan Hawkins lives near 
Eichmond. His son Thomas lives near Dover. Samuel 
"Walker, from Ky., where is now the Bellevue "Water Cure. 
Wm. Scarce, from Ky., on the quarter where his son Jona- 
than and Elias Edwards live. Samuel Heritage, on land 
bought by Wm. Edwards, now owned by Isaac Lamb. The 
school section [16] on the township south line, was sold to 
Daniel Odell, David Scarce, Samuel Scarce, Alexander Grimes; 
present owners, I. Mcllender, Anthony Grimes, Solomon 
Miller, David Scarce's heirs, Christopher Davidson, and 
others. 

In the south-exist part of the township Thomas Bulla, from 
N. C, settled in 1806, on the Elkhorn ; land now owned by 
Hiram Bulla. [Sk.] He also bought lands adjoining, now 
owned by John W. Raper and Samuel Irwin. Wm. Fonts, 
who came with Bulla, settled on land adjoining the Ohio line, 
afterward §old to Samuel Shute, and now owned by his son 
Aaron Shute. Jacob Fonts, Sen., on land now owned by 
Charles Shute's heirs. Jacob Fonts, Jun., settled at the Falls 
of Short Creek; land now owned by "Wm. Elliott. Fouts re- 
moved to Illinois, and is still living. Samuel Smith and Jacob 
Smith, near the Elkhorn ; the former died about 1850, the lat- 
ter in 1857. 

Aaron Brown, from IST. J., settled early near the Smiths; 
was a successful farmer, and reared a large family. Advanced 
in years, and having lost his wife, he quit farming, removed to 
Richmond, and kept house with a daughter a few j^ears. He 
was found dead in his cistern. Benj. B. Moore, also from N. 
J., came in 1818, with a grown family, and had a farm and a 
saw-mill on Short Creek, where he died in 1850. Tiie land, 
on which there is a saw-mill, is now owned by Wm. Elliott. His 
ehildren were Ira, Matilda, and Chalkley. Ira lives 4 miles 



334 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

east of Richmond, and his son Benjamin on land adjoining, 
south. John Fryer, where Samuel Fryer lives. Jonathan 
Edwards, wliere Wm. M. Roberts now resides. 

Nathaniel McClure, Sen., settled early on land now owned 
by his heirs and Judge Holland, ISTathaniel McClure, Jun., 
on the south line; land now owned by his heirs. James East 
and Widow Davidson bought the quarter now owned by 
George G-rimes' heirs. John Dugan, Sen., the quarter, a part 
of which is owned by Charles Paully, the other part occupied 
by Joseph Brown. Mark Kirby, from Del., settled, in 1829, 
3 miles south-east from Richmond, where the widow of his 
son Edward lives. Samuel Holmes settled on the land now 
owned by Walker Holmes, 2| miles south-east from Riclimond. 
Kathan Small settled where S. Kirby lives. Wm. Edwards 
and Benj. Small on the land now owned by C. Hageman, 4 
miles south-east from Richmond. James Brown and John 
Walker settled on the lands now owned by Ira Moore and his 
son Benjamin, on the east line of the township. 

Further north, and east of Richmond, Samuel Morris, (not 
the first owner,) settled on the quarter now owned by H. L. 
Wetheral and Benj. Lloyd. The farms early owned by Amos 
Hawkins, James Alexander, and Stephen Thomas, are now 
owned by David Sands, who came, when a boy, with his 
father, from the South, and lived about Whitewater, penniless, 
without education, and was for a time a common teamster. 
The old homestead of Robert Hill was many years ago in the 
hands of Amos Clawson, where he kept a tavern, sign of 
" Green Tree," now owned by Andrew F. Scott, of Richmond. 
Joseph White settled near the Ohio line, where he died in 
1868. He owned other lands near, which are owned by his 
heirs. His widow resides on the homestead. 

In the north-east part of the township, Jesse Clark, from jN". 
C, in 1814, settled 3 miles north-east from Richmond, and 
died in 1822. JHe built a fulling-mill, probably the first in the 
county. His son Elwood lives 4 miles north-east from Rich- 
mond; a daughter, Gulielma, in Leavenworth, Kansas. James 
Moore, a native of Georgia, from Ohio in 1817, settled 2J 
miles north-east of Richmond, where he still resides. Jona- 
than, Enos, Jacob, and Nathan Grave, from Del., settled in 



WAYNE TOWNSHIP. 335 

1816 near and south of .Middleborough, [See the Grave 
Family.] Joseph Strawbridge, from Pa., where his son 
Thomas Clarkson lives, 3 miles north-east from liichmond. 

Samuel E. Iredell, from Philadelphia, in 1835 came to Rich- 
mond, where he died in 1865. His sons John and Samuel re- 
side about 4 miles north-east from Richmond. 

Seth Cook, from Carolina, settled 2 miles south from Mid- 
dleboro', near where his son Elijah Cook and R. Commons re- 
side. Harvey Cook, son of Amos Cook, next north of Elijah 
Cook. Amos is a brother of Elias. Wm. Bond settled on and 
near the lands, a mile below Middleboro', now owned by 
James F. Kerlin, Hugh Moffitt, and E. Jetfers. Wm. Brown, 
where Joel Railsback resides, 2J miles north of Richmond. 
Abuer Clawson, where Elihu Williams lives. Josiah Clawson, 
on land now owned by Hugh Moffitt and M. Wessels, 2^ 
miles north-east from Richmond. 

In the north part of the township, John Morrow resides on 
the north line; he is a son of John Morrow, who settled near 
Richmond in 1818, and died in 1825, aged about 60. 

John Hiatt, from N. C. in 1809, settled near the township 
north line, and died in 1825. His son Riley resides near Ches- 
ter. Paul Starbuck, a native of Mass., from K. C. in 1811, 
settled where his son Paul lives, 4 miles north of Richmond. 
John and Elias are his sons. Joshua Pickett, from 'N. C, 3 
miles north from Richmond, near where his son Benjamin now 
resides. Paul Starbuck, a native of Mass., from I^. C. in 1811, 
settled in the north part of the township, and died in 1845. 
His son Paul lives 4 miles north of Richmond. 

In the north-west part, Jonathan Votaw, from Va. in 1817, 
settled where the Widow Hampton resides. His children : 
Isaac, who resides 2 miles north-west from Chester, in New 
Garden ; Eunice, wife of Eli Rogers, of Richmond; Eleanor; 
Jonathan Votaw died in 1823, aged about 35 years. David 
Hampton, a native of Va., came to Richmond in 1817 ; mar- 
ried in Ohio, in 1818, and settled near where his sons now live, 
near Votaw station. His children are Lewis, Jacob, Jehiel, 
Emily, William, Sarah Ann, John D., Mahlon. David Hamp- 
ton died in 1855, at the age of 60. Wm. Kendall, born in N. 
C. in 1808, married Abigail, daughter of Michael Weesner, 



336 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

settled one mile north-west of Chester, died 1870. John Jay 
entered, in the north-west corner of the township, the land 
on which his grandson J. W. Jaj^ resides. 

Thomas H. Shearon and his brothers William, Warner, and 
Oliver H., settled near the west line, where the first three still 
reside. [See Sk. of Caleb Shearon.] James P. Reid settled 
where he now resides, 4 miles north-west from Richmond. 

In the west iiart of the township, George Smith, from South 
Carolina, settled, in 1809, 2 miles north-west from Richmond, 
on the land now owned by Levinus King, of Richmond. He 
was a devout member of the Methodist Church, and an ef- 
ficient laborer in building up that denomination in this county- 
He lived the last three years of his life with his j'ouugest son, 
Rev. Wm. C. Smith, during which time his wife died. He 
died in Indianapolis in 1857, in his 81st year. 

Jesse Evans, born in N. C, came from Ohio to Richmond in 
1822, afterward settled IJ miles from Richmond, where he 
now resides. Richard Pedrick settled early one mile west of 
Richmond; sold most of his lands, retaining the homestead, 
and resides in the city. Wm. Thistlethwaite, in 1830, settled 
near and west of Richmond. [Sk.] Elisha JSTorris, a native of 
Md,, settled in West Richmond, in 1835, near where he now 
resides. Thomas Aired, from Ohio, after service in the war of 
1812, settled one mile west from Richmond, and died in 1859. 
His daughter Marian was married to John Duke; Lill Ann, 
to L. R. Thomas; Mary, to Alfred Hoover. John Wilcoxen, 
born in Maryland in 1790, came from Ohio to Richmond in 
1821; worked in the Morrisson tannery, and now resides half a 
mile west of the city. Enoch Railsback settled near the west 
line of the township, on the farm, a part of which was the site 
of Salis.bury, the first county seat. 

In the south-west part of the township, James Black and his 
son Gwyn, from Ky., settled where Gwyn and his son Albert 
reside, 2| miles south-west from Richmond. Jeremiah Meek 
on the river, 2 miles below Richmond, where his son Morton 
Meek resides. C. Buhl, on laud now owned by his heirs. 




4m\n ®km 



WAYNE TOWNSHIP. 337 

Biographical and Genealogical. 

John Barnes was born in Treuton, New Jersey, November 
10, 1781, and was married in Philadelphia, in 1804, to Eliza- 
beth Williamson, whence they removed to Berks county, 
Penn., where they resided until the jqhv 1825, when they re- 
moved to Richmond. After residing there about a year, he 
bought of David Ilolloway the farm known as the Fleming 
place, about 3 miles east from Richmond, where he resided 
nearly twenty-three years. Mrs. Barnes died January 1, 1841, 
in her 61st year. The children of John and Elizabeth Barnes 
were : 1. Elizabeth TF., born February 10, 1805, was married 
January 4, 1827, to Samuel W. Smith, and died August 23, 
1827. 2. Martha B., born March 3, 1807, and died July 21, 
1829. 3. Isaac N., born February 8, 1809, resides in St. 
Louis. 4. Joseph W., born August 13, 1812, and resides in 
New Orleans. 5. John^ born June 10, 1814, and died October 
7, 1824. 6. William B., born March 25, 181G, and resides at 
Davenport, Iowa. 7. George W., born May 1, 1819, and is 
a merchant in Richmond. 8. Robert^ born June 24, 1821 ; 
died September 6, 1825. John Barnes lived, for the last 
twelve years of his life, with his son George W., in Rich- 
mond, and died May 7, 1863, in his 82d year. 

William Baxter was born in England, February 11, 1824; 
came to this country in 1848, and settled in Philadelphia. He 
engaged as book-keeper and cashier in a wholesale dry goods 
store, at $8 a week. By his unusual industry, application, 
and business capacity, he soon gained the unbounded con- 
fidence of his employers, and after the short space of eight 
months, one of the partners retiring from the firm, ofiered 
him a partnership in the wool trade, in which they continued 
about 15 years; his partner from time to time, unsolicited, 
increasing his share of the profits until they divided equally. 
They supplied, chiefly. New England and Germantown man- 
ufacturers. In 1864, he retired with an ample fortune, the 
reward of assiduous and careful attention to business. In 
1864, he bought of James E. Reeves the farm originally en- 
tered and settled by John Charles, and afterward owned suc- 
cessively by Oliver Kinsey, Robert Morrissou, and Mr. 
25 



338 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Reeves. He has expended on the farm and buildings, a sum 
nearly equal to the purchase money. About two-thirds of 
the farm have been thoroughly drained — the drains averaging 
about 3 feet in depth, and 24 feet apart. lie has probably 
the most convenient arrangements for cooking food for cattle 
and swine in the state ; and he finds this the most economical 
way of feeding. As the result of these improvements he has 
already doubled the products per acre of a large proportion 
of his farm. His highest ambition is to make a model farm, 
and by successful experiment to stimulate the farmers of the 
county to the adoption of improved modes of agriculture. 
Mr. Baxter, several years before his removal to this place, 
married Mary Barker, an adopted daughter of Hugh Moffitt, 
by whom he has six children, five daughters and a son. He 
is a member of the society of Friends known as the White- 
water meeting. 

Thomas Bulla was born in Chester county. Pa., April 19, 
1780, and while young, emigrated witli his father to x^orth 
Carolina, in the time of the Revolutionary war. At the age 
of 19, he married Mary Fonts, by whom he had two cljildren, 
Lenore and Thomas. In the fall of 1804, he came with his 
family to Germantown, Ohio, where his father-in-law resided. 
They crossed the Ohio at Cincinnati, where he saw but three 
brick houses. In i^ovember, 1805, he started with six others 
in search of land. After ten days' journey and thirty 
miles travel with a two-horse team through the wilderness, 
cutting their road from Eaton, twelve miles, they camped 
half a mile south of where he afterward settled, 5 miles south- 
east of Richmond, near the south-east corner of Wayne 
township. Three of them, Jesse Davenport, Jacob Fonts 
and himself entered their lands. His wife dying in Septem- 
ber following, he deferred his removal until the last of De- 
cember, 1806, when, with his two children and a second wife, 
Susanna Mowery, he resumed house-keeping in his log cabin. 
Coming so soon after those of the Holman and Rue settle- 
ment, he and his neighbors were subjected to like privations 
and hardships. They had to pack their breadstufls on horse- 
back from the settlements in Ohio, and take their first crops 
of grain into that state, a distance of 12 miles, to be ground. 




(::^-^^Z<^i^^^^y^..u,iS^ 



WAYNE TOWNSHIP. 339 

Mr. Bulla had by his second wife 16 children — making in 
all 18 ; of whom the following passed the age of infancy : 1. 
Sarah, who married Joel East. They reside in Cass county, 
Michigan. 2. William, who married, first, Mary Edwards, 
and settled in Preble county, Ohio ; second, Martha Green. 
3. Joseph M. [See Sketch.] 4. John, who married in Preble 
county, Ohio, and died in Goshen, Elkhart county, Ind. 5. 
Isaac N., who graduated at the Medical College of Ohio, and 
died in 1841, at the age of 25. 6. Susan, who married Joseph 
Matlack, and resides 4 miles north of Richmond. 7, 8. Chris- 
tina and Nancy, both of whom died in 1841. 9. James, who 
died at 11. 10. Hiram, who married Elizabeth Staley, of 
Preble county, Ohio, and lives on the homestead of his father. 
11. Mary, who married Edward Shute, and resides in Clark 
county. 111. 12. Chester, who married Sarah A. Davidson, 
and resides in Richmond. 

In a " Pioneer Sketch " written by Mr. Bulla for the Rich- 
mond Palladium in 1856, he says, that during the period of 
his housekeeping, he had lost fifteen members of his family : 
twelve children, two waves, and his mother. He died in Feb- 
ruary, 1865. 

William Bulla was born in Pennsylvania, and, w^hen 
young, went to Xorth Carolina. He was there married to 
Elizabeth, daughter of Andrew Hoover, who w^as born De- 
cember 25, 1778. Mr. Bulla was one of the first settlers on 
Middle Fork, having come wath the Hoover family, and 
settled in the same neighborhood, where he lived until his 
death, July 3, 1862. His wife died March 26, 1857. He was 
a member of the society of Friends, a friend of universal 
freedom, whose opposition to slavery was manifested in aid- 
ing fugitives on their way northw^ard. His children were : 
1. Anjia, who married Evan Chalfant, and died about 1849, 
in St. Joseph county. 2. Elizabeth, who was married to 
Samuel Burgess, and died in 1858. 3. Thomas P., to Hannah 
Draper, and resides at South Bend. 4. Andrew, an early 
printer in the county, and one of the editors of the Wef^tern 
Times, published at Center ville, who died, February, 1832, 
unmarried. 5. James, unmarried, died in 1861, in St. Joseph 
county. 6. William F., who married Mary Stevenson, and 



340 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

resides at South Bend. 7. David 11. , who married Sarah 
Cox, and died in Louisville, August, 1856. 8. Daniel, who 
married Caroline Clawson, and lives on the homestead, in the 
house in which he was born in 1814, and built by his father 
in 1810. 9. Esther, living in Richmond, widow of John W. 
League, 10. Sarah B., residing 2 miles north-west from Rich- 
mond, widow of David B. Golden. 11. John H., who mar- 
ried Ann H. Cramptou, and lives in Laporte county. 

Samuel Charles was born in Korth Carolina, in 1759 ; 
settled, in 1812, a mile east of Richmond, where he died in 
1849. His children were, Elizabeth, who married John Pool; 
John, who settled, in 1809, where Wm. Baxter now resides; 
Sarah, wife of Wm. Harvey; Gulielma, wife of Micajah Hen- 
ley; Samuel; Daniel, who resides in Green; Abigail, wife of 
Josiah Bell, at Dublin; Joseph; Nathan, who died on the 
homestead of his father, in January, 1871, where his widow 
now resides. Their children now living are Wilson, Matthew, 
Sarah, Samuel, Martha. Rebecca died in June, 1870. 

Jeremiah Cox, son of Jeremiah Cox, of Richmond, was 
born in Randolph county, IST. C, November 21, 1790, and came 
with his father to Whitewater in 1806. He settled in 1812 
where he now resides, 6 miles north-east from Richmond. 
He there early built a grist-mill, and carried on the milling 
business with that of farming for nearly 50 years. He has 
been married five times. His first wife was Ruth Andrew, by 
whom he had eight children : 1. Branson, who married 
Catharine Cook, and removed to, Mississinewa, w^iere they 
both died. 2. JElihu, who married Martha Grave, daughter 
of Jacob Grave. He has been a member of the legislature. 
3. Robert, who married, 1st, Elvira Addington ; 2d, Narcissa 
Way, daughter of the late Dr. Henry H. Way, of Newport, 
and is a farmer and miller on the old place of his father, and 
is postmaster. 4. Jfar?/, whose first husband was Isaac Cook. 
She is now the wife of David Little, who lives at Middle- 
borough. 5. Margery, who married David Harris, of Ran- 
dolph county. 6. Abigail, wife of Ammiel Hunt ; both died 
at their residence in Center, he in 1870, aged 49. Their 
children were Elvira, Jemima, wife of J. W. Jay, Nathan C, 
Jeremiah, who died in 1868, Oliver H., Eunice E. Mrs. 



WAYNE TOWNSHIP. 341 

Hunt died in 1857. 7. Jeremiah^ who married, 1st, Keturah 
Hunt, 2d, Delila Garretson, and resides at Greenvale, Joe 
Daviess county, 111. 8. Hannah,who married Elihu Adding- 
ton, and is not living. J. Cox married for his second wife, 
Mrs. Jemima Coburn; for his 3d, Hannah Moore; for his 4th, 
Mrs. Phebe Allen ; for his 5th, Mrs. Mary W. Doyle. 

Grave Families. — Four brothers Grave, from Delaware, in 
1816, settled in the north-east part of Wayne township. 1. 
Jonathan settled on land formerly owned by Tabitha White, 
adjoining Middleborough, west side, and died about 1824. He 
had five sons and two daughters. Of these, Allen lives in 
Minnesota ; David T. died in Kichmond, 1869 ; Warner re- 
sides on the homestead. Howell, who was engaged at farm- 
ing in New Garden many j'ears, has been for ten years, and is 
now, an iron merchant in Richmond. 2. Enos settled about 
2 miles south of Jonathan, where RoUin T. Reed now re- 
sides ; taught school at times, and held the office of county 
commissioner. He had four sons and two daughters. Kersey 
Grave, probably the only survivor, resides at the old home of 
his father. 3. Jacob settled two miles south-east from Jonathan. 
John Clawson now lives in the old house. Sons of Jacob 
Grave were, Milton, residence unknown ; Curtis, lately hard- 
ware merchant in Richmond, and Levi, live in Randolph Co. ; 
Joseph C, at Whitewater. Martha, a daughter, wife of Elihu 
Cox, and had several daughters. 4. Nathan settled about 2J 
miles nearly south of Middleboro', where his son Wm. resides. 
He had, by his first wife, three sons, and one by his second ; 
namely, Stephen, a farmer in Montgomery Co. ; John L., who 
died in California; Piisey, now a judge in Kansas, formerly 
a clerk of the courts ; William, who resides on the old home- 
stead. 

John Hawkins, Sen., a native of South Carohna, came from 
Ohio, 1808, (?) and settled where his grandson Nathan resides, 
on the east side of, and adjoining Richmond, and wliere he 
died in 1816. He had three sons : Amos, John, and AVilliam ; 
and seven daughters. Of his sons, only John and William 
settled in the county — William, where Cambridge City now 
is; and John, in Wayne township. 

John Hawkins, sou of John, Sen., from South Carolina, set- 



342 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

tied, in 1807 or 1808, one mile north-east from Richmond, 
where he resided until his death, September 1, 1859, at the 
age of nearly 82 years. He was married in Carolina ; was a 
member of the society of Friends, and was one of those, else- 
where noticed, who were imprisoned in the jail at Salisbury 
for non-compliance with the military law during the war of 
1812. He had four children : 1, 7a?nar, who married Isaac 
Reynolds; both died in Dalton. 2. Sarah, who married Da- 
vid Jessup, and resides in Cambridge City. 3. Nathan, [Sk.] 
4. John, who married Mary Jessup, and lives on the home- 
stead of his father. 

Nathan Hawkins, son of John, last above noticed, was 
born April 15, 1808, and was married, Jan. 1, 1830, to Sarah, 
daughter of Elijah Wright, and settled, soon after, where he 
still resides, on the farm first owned by John Harvey. His 
children were : 1. William, who married Duannah Burgoyne, 
and lives in Illinois. 2. Eliza, who married Daniel Comer, 
and lives in Randolph county. 3. Lydia, who married Cor- 
nelius Terpening, and resides in Illinois. 4. John, who mar- 
ried Martha Jessup, in Randolph Co., and lives in Illinois. 5. 
Henry, unmarried. 6. Eli, who married Alice Shaw, and re- 
sides near his father's. 7. Jane S., who married John W. 
Burgoyne, at Catlin, 111. 8. Allen, who married Ann E. 
Hockett, and lives with his father. 9. Charles N., who died 
at 19. 10. George W., unmarried. The wife of Nathan Haw- 
kins aied October 10, 1867. 

Amos Hawkins, brother of John Hawkins, Sen., settled in 
the township. He had but one son, Jonathan, and three 
daughters : Charity, Eliza, and Martha. Jonathan's sons 
were Newton, and Amos L., who married a daughter of Mor- 
decai Parry. Amos Hawkins was born in 1757, and died in 
1837, aged 80 years. 

Benjamin Hill was born in North Carolina, June 22, 1770. 
In 1802, he removed to Carroll county, Va., and thence, in 
the autumn of 1806, with his wife and five children, to the 
Whitewater country, and settled about 3 miles east from Rich- 
mond. The five children were, John, born February 20, 1797, 
and died in Rush county; Sarah, born June 17, 1798, who 
was married to Jehoshaphat Morris ; Jacob, born February 



RW5^ ^wig»> 



'?I^*fe- 



1 





WAYNE TOWNSHIP. 343 

3, 1800, and died in Henry county ; William, born March 18, 
1802, and died in Rush county ; Joseph, born August 4, 1804, 
and lives in Boon county. Soon after their arrival here, 
Mary was born December 27, 1806. The wife of Benj. Hill 
died soon after, and he was married to Martha Cox, who was 
born in Randolph county, I^. C, November 28, 1779, and came 
to Indiana in 1807. The children of this marriage were : 1. 
Benjamin, who married Sarah, a daughter of the late David 
Hoover. Their children are David H., Martha E., Albert G., 
Henry L., Anna C, George W. Benj. Hill resides 3 miles 
east of Richmond. 2. Harmon, who married Mary Henley. 
3. Rebecca, the first wife of Thomas Newby. 4. Ezra, who 
married Mary Kirby. 5. Enos, who married Elizabeth Kirby. 

Benj. Hill, Sen., died February 9, 1829, in his 59th year; 
Martha Hill, his widow, born November 28, 1779, died Janu- 
ary 25, 1867. 

Robert Hill was born January 31, 1780, in North Carolina, 
where he married Susanna Morgan, and in 1806, settled about 
3 miles east from Richmond. His children were; 1. Martha. 

2. William, who married Zilpha Hallowell, and died in Iowa. 

3. Benjamin, who married Ann Clark, and removed to Iowa. 

4. Samuel, who married Susan Cook, and lives in Iowa. 5. 
Elizabeth, wife of Charles Shute, who died in this township. 
6. Mary, wife of Wm. Parry. 7. Pennina, wife of Edward 
Shaw, in Richmond. 8. Charles, who married Jemima 
Clark, and lives in Richmond. 9. Robert, who married 

Elizabeth Clawsou. 10. George, who married Hibbard. 

Robert Hill, Sen., married for his second wife, Mrs. Rebecca 
Lathrop. He was a respected and worthy citizen and repre.- 
sented the county one or two terms in the legislature. 

George Holman was born in Maryland, February 11, 1762; 
and, when young, removed with his father to Pennsylvania. 
His mother having died when he was a child, his father placed 
him under the care of Henry Holman, a brother of his father. 
When about 16 years of age he removed with his uncle Henry 
to Kentucky. They were accompanied by a few other emi- 
grants, among whom was Edward Holman, Henry's brother, 
a member of whose family was Richard Rue, a year or two 
older than George Holman. The company settled near the 



344 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

site of the present city of Louisville. lu February, 1781, as a 
historian dates the event, but probably about two years later, 
Irvin Hinton goino^ to Harrodsburg for a load of flour, the 
young men, Hue and Holman, were sent with him as guards 
for his protection against the hostile Indians. While on their 
way out they were captured by a party of thirteen Indians, led 
by one Simon Girty, a white man, a native of Pennsylvania, 
and carried northward to Wa-puc-ca-nat-ta, on the Auglaize, 
where they were compelled to run the gauntlet, and barely 
escaped death. Hinton afterward made his escape, and was 
recaptured, and burned at the stake. Rue and Holman were 
afterward sentenced to a similar death. • Holman was rescued 
by an Indian, who adopted him as a son. After an aflFection- 
ate, mutual embrace, Rue was tied to a stake, encircled by 
dry brushwood. As the faggots were about to be applied to 
the dry brush, a young Shawnee sprang into the ring, and 
with a tomahawk chopped off the cord that bound him to the 
stake ; led him out amidst the plaudits of some and the threats 
of others, and adopted him as a brother in the place of one he 
had recently lost. 

These young men were in captivity three years and a half. 
Rue, who had been the last six months at Detroit, escaped with 
two other captives. After traveling nights and resting by day 
for twenty days, and narrowly escaping death by starvation, 
they safely reached the Ohio river. The Indians wdio were 
dissatisfied with Holman's release, succeeded in getting him 
again put on trial, and by a majority of one vote he was ac- 
quitted, and again rescued from the stake. 

The protracted war having brought great distress upon the 
Indians, they ceased hostilities for a time, with a view to re- 
cruiting themselves. Holman proposed that if they would 
send with him to Kentucky a young Indian warrior .who knew 
the way to the Falls of the Ohio, he would apply to a rich 
uncle for the needed supplies, and obtain for them what they 
wanted. To this they assented ; and Holman, with another 
prisoner and the young warrior, left Wa-puc-ca-nat-ta. Strik- 
ing the Ohio a few miles above Louisville, they swam across 
the river with their guns and blankets lashed on their backs, 
and proceeded to Louisville, where Gen. Clark was then 



WAYNE TOWNSHIP. 345 

stationed with troops and military stores, with whom they 
staid all night, and who, having learned the object of their 
mission, ottered them all they w^anted to procure the ransom 
of the two prisoners. [The writer has been told by one 
likely to know, that it was the purpose of Holman to return 
with the Indian, and to become a trader with the northern 
tribes.] A few days after his arrival he met at Edward Hol- 
man's his friend and fellow-prisoner Rue, who had arrived 
but three days before. Prior to their captivity. Rue had been 
in several campaigns under Gen. Clark; after their return, 
Rue was in two and Holman in one. 

In 1804, Mr. Holman, with his friend Rue and one or two 
others, came to the Whitewater country, bought their lands 
two miles south of the present city of Richmond, and re- 
turned. The next year they came with their families, ac- 
companied by a number of their Kentucky friends. Being 
remote from any settlement, their privations and sufferings 
were probably more severe than those of any who came after 
them. 

Mr. Holman was married in Kentucky. He had twelve 
children : 1. Joseph. [Sk.] 2. "William, who married Rue 
Meek, daughter of Jacob Meek ; was a captain in the war of 
1812, and became a Methodist preacher in 1815; died Aug. 

I, 1861. 3. John, who'died at 5. 4, 5. Benjamin and Joel, 
in infancy. 6. Patsey, who married Wm. Meek. 7. Rebecca, 
who married John Woodkirk, and died on the Wabash. 8. 
Sarah, who married John Odell ; removed to Oregon, where 
he died, and where she still resides. 9. Greenup, who mar- 
ried Lethe Druley, and died in Marion, Grant Co. 10. Jesse, 
who married, first, Nancy Galbraith, who died in this county; 
second, Sarah Julian, and died at Mt. Vernon, O., in 1868. 

II. Catharine, who married Adam Porter. They live at Del- 
phi, Carroll Co. 12. Isaac, who married, removed to Cali- 
fornia, and died there. 

Andrew Hoover was born in Maryland about the year 1751. 
His father, Andrew Hoover, and his wife's father, Rudol[ili 
Way mire, both emigrated from Germany to this country. An- 
drew Hoover, Sen., married Margaret Fonts in Pennsylvania, 
and settled in Maryland, where his son Andrew, the subject of 



346 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

this notice, was born. The latter married Elizabeth "Waymire, 
and removed to North Carolina, where he resided until the 
autumn of 1802, when, with a large family, he removed to 
the Miami country in Ohio. In 1806, the family settled on 
Middle Fork of Whitewater, a mile and a half north-east of 
where Richmond now^ stands. The circumstances attending his 
settlement have been related. He had 10 children, all of 
whom were married, as follows : 1. Mary, born March 3, 1777, 
married Thomas Kewman, father of John S. Newman, now of 
Indianapolis, and died about 1803. 2. Elizabeth, born Dec. 
25, 1778, married Wm. Bulla, and died about the year 1857. 
3. David ; [see Sketch below.] 4. Frederick, born Sept. 24, 
1783, married Catharine Yount, cousin of Catharine, David's 
wife, and had 11 children. He removed to the "Wabash, where 
he died April 30, 1868. 5. Susanna, born in 1785, married 
Elijah Wright ; had 10 children, and died in the spring of 
1870. 6. Henry; [see Sketch.] 7. Rebecca; [see Sketch of 
Isaac Julian.] 8. Andrew^, born June 26, 1793, married Guliel- 
ma Ratliff, and died in 1866. 9. Catharine, born Jan. 4, 
1796, married John McLane; removed to Illinois, and died in 
1865. 10. Sarah, born July 15, 1798, married Jacob Sanders, 
and had two daughters : Mary, who married Wm. Burgess, 
and is not living, and Elizabeth, who married Samson Boon, 
with whom Sarah Sanders now resides, in Richmond. Jacob 
Sanders died in 1862. Andrew Hoover, father of the family 
sketched above, died near the close of tlie year 1834, aged 
about 83 years. He is said to have had, at the time of his 
death, upward of one hundred descendants. In a note by the 
editor of Judge Hoover's Memoir, he says : " Except the 
eldest, who died young, [Mary, at the age of about 26,] his 
children were all living until March, 1857 ; the oldest survivor 
being seventy-eight, and the youngest lifty-eight years of age. 
In December, 1854, an interesting reunion of these brothers 
and sisters was had, at the house of one of their number, in 
Richmond." 

David Hoover, son of Andrew Hoover, was born in Ran- 
dolph Co., N. C, April 14, 1781. He removed with his 
father's family to Ohio, in 1802, and thence in 1807, to White- 
water. [See page 29, and Memoir written by himself.] He 



WAYNE TOWNSHIP. 347 

married, March 31, 1807, Catharine Yount, near the Great 
Miami, and removed to the land selected and entered in 1806, 
and on which he had, before his removal, built a log cabin. 
On this farm he resided until his death, in 1866. Although his 
opportunities for acquiring an education were exceedingly lim- 
ited, having, as he wrote, " never had an opportunity of read- 
ing a newspaper, nor seen a bank-note, until after he was a 
man grown," he accumulated a fund of practical knowledge 
which fitted him for the various public trusts confided to him 
by his fellow-citizens. In 1810, he was appointed a justice of 
the peace of Wayne county. In 1815, he was appointed an 
associate judge of the Wayne county circuit court. In Feb., 
1817, he was elected clerk of that court, and held the office by 
re-election nearly fourteen years ; and, as is stated in a 
biographical sketch, he might have continued in the office 
" had it not been that, owing to his domestic tastes, he could 
not be prevailed on to remove to the county seat, which the 
people required him to do." It is mentioned as evidence of 
his having the respect and confidence of his fellow-citizens, 
that he had in his possession seven commissions for offices 
which he had held, besides his having had a seat in the senate 
of the state for six years. The duties of these offices he faith- 
fully and acceptably discharged. He delighted in reading. 
He collected a large and valuable library, embracing a wide 
range of literature, science, and general knowledge. This 
more than supplied the deficiency in his school education ; and 
his example strongly commends itself to the thousands of 
young men who profess to deplore the want of early educational 
advantages. They may find, as he found in the course he pur- 
sued, more than a substitute for the acquisitions of some from 
a full collegiate course. His politics and religion he states 
distinctly in his Memoir: "In politics, I profess to belong to 
the Jeffersonian school ;" and he takes his motto from Mr. 
Jefferson's first inaugural: "Equal and exact justice to all 
men," He declares himself "a firm believer in the Christian 
religion," and " opposed to all wars and to slavery." 

Judge Hoover had seven children, all of whom were mar- 
ried : 1. Hiram, who married Elizabeth Marmon. After her 
death he removed to Kansas, where he married Mary Price, and 



348 HISTORY OP WAYNE COUNTY. 

died. 2. Elizabeth was married to Jacob Thornburg, of New- 
castle, and after his death, to Simon T. Powell, of the same 
place. 3. Susan, to Wm. L. Brady, of Richmond. 4. Sarah, 
to 13enj. Hill, of Wayne towniship. 5, Isabel, to James M. 
Brown, of Richmond. 6. Esther, to Henry Shroyer, of ISTew- 
castle. 7. David, to Phebe Macy, and lives on the homestead 
of his father. Judge Hoover died Sej^tember 12, 1866. 

Frederic Hoover, second son of Andrew Hoover, was born 
in North Carolina, Sept. 24, 1783, and came with his father's 
family to where they settled, on Middle Fork, in 1806. He 
married Catharine Yount, a cousin of Catharine Yount, the 
wife of his brother David, and settled in the neighborhood of 
his father, where he resided until the time of his death. His 
occupation was that of a farmer during his Hfe. He never 
sought public position or notoriety. He was a member of the 
society of Friends, and conscientious in the discharge of duty 
in the various relations of life. Christian philanthropy was a 
prominent trait in his character. He was an earnest advocate 
of the abolition of slavery, and of the principles of peace, as 
held by the Friends. He had in youth very limited educational 
advantages; but he availed himself, in after hfe, of such means 
as were aftbrded for the cultivation of his mind. He was 
withal personally agreeable and interesting; and his weight 
little less than three hundred pounds. Two or three years be- 
fore his death his mind began to fail, and, at the time of his 
decease, was nearly a blank. Yet his devotional habits were 
continued to the last, he being regularly in his place at the 
Friends' meeting. He died at the residence of his son, Alex- 
ander, in Thorntown, on the "Wabash, April 30, 1868. His 
body was brought home and interred in the family burial- 
ground. 

Henry Hoover, third son of Andrew Hoover, was born in 
North Carolina, Sept. 22, 1788, and came, when about 18 years 
of age, with his father's family to Whitewater in 1807. He 
married Susanna Clark, sister of the late Daniel Clark, of Wayne 
township, and settled in the vicinity of his father's residence. 
Like the sons of most of the early settlers, he had grown up 
where educational advantages were extremely limited. With 
little more learning than an imperfect knowledge of reading. 



WAYNE TOWNSHIP. 349 

writing,' and the few simpler parts of arithmetic, he commenced 
life for himself on a new farm, a condition generally deemed 
unfavorable to mental and intellectual improvement. But, 
like his brother above noticed, he had recourse to home read- 
ing and stud}^ which he, too, found more than a substitute for 
the mere learning of the schools. Few in this educational age 
commenced the business of life with so poor an education as 
he did; jet comparatively few became so well fitted for life's 
duties and responsibilities. lie was right in considering the 
additions he was making to his fund of practical knowledge, 
as no, less valuable than the yearly products of a well-cultivated 
farm. He was early appointed or elected to offices of greater 
or less responsibility. He w^as in 1825 a member of the legis- 
lature, the first that convened at Indianapolis. In 1832, he 
was appointed by Gen. Cass, then secretary of war, sec- 
retary to the commissioners appointed to hold two Indian 
treaties. In personal appearance, he is said to have been ex- 
celled by few; and his native dignity of bearing "gave the 
world assurance of a man." His religious history, though 
showing changes in his church relations, evinces, nevertheless, 
firmness of principle. He was a member of the society of 
Friends. In 1828, during the visit of Elias Hicks at Rich- 
mond, after his followers had separated from the meeting, Mr. 
Hoover several times attended his preaching, in consequence 
of which he lost his standing in the old society. He did not, 
however, join the new, but remained for about fifteen years 
without any church connection. In 1830, he removed to a 
farm he had purchased on Poland's Fork, a few miles from the 
town of Washington, where he united with the Methodist 
Church, of which he was a devoted and an active member. 
Trained from his childhood in the simpler modes and forms of 
worship, he was pained at the introduction of melodeons, or- 
gans and choirs, and absented himself from the meetings of 
the churcli, and finally withdrew. His wife died Aug. 9, 1853. 
In December, 1854, he married Mrs. Lydia Z. Yaughan ; and 
in 1855 he sold his farm and removed to Kichmond, where he 
resided until his death, July 23, 1868, aged nearly 80 years. 
Within the last year of his life he united with the Fifth street 



350 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

society of Friends, of which he was a member at the time of 
his death. 

Mr. Hoover had seven children: 1. Alfred, who married 
Mary Aired, and resides in Kosciusko Co. 2. Mary, who 
married David Culbertson, and died at Mt. Vernon, Iowa. 3. 
Anna, who married Thomas Harvey, who lives in Wayne 
township. 4. Martlia, who married Daniel Culbertson, and 
lives in the town of "Washington. 5. Allen, who married Ruth 
Jackson; both died at Mt. Vernon, Iowa. 6. Daniel, who 
married Henriett Heagy. 7. Henry, who married Louisa 
Lamb, and died at Mt. Vernon, Iowa. The two sons and one 
daughter were all buried within three years after their removal 
to Mt. Vernon. 

Nathaniel McClure settled, in 1809, about 3 miles south- 
east from Richmond. He had six sons and seven daughters, 
all of whom attained the age of majority, except a daughter, 
who died at 11. In 1817, the father and two sons died on or 
near the same day. The time between the death of the 
father and that of the younger son was but two hours. The 
father and the two sons, James and Alexander, were buried 
in one grave. Jane, a daughter, died but a few days before. 
Three daughters, Isabel D., Sarah W., and Elizabeth L,, are 
still living in the city. 

John Martin was born in Delaware, November 17, 1780, 
and settled in Chester county. Pa. ; was married to Ruth 
Stevens, and in 1837 removed to Wayne township, on Middle 
Fork of Whitewater, one mile south of Middleboro'. About 
the year 1853, he removed to Linn Co., Iowa, where he died, 
March 18, 1871. He had six children who passed the age of 
infancy: 1. John S., who was killed by the running away of 
a team, at the age of 14. 2. Benjamin L. [Sk.] 3. Nathan 
W., unmarried, in Linn county, Iowa. 4. Isaac N., who mar- 
ried Elizabeth Reed, daughter of John Reed, now of Rich- 
mond, and lives in Linn county, Iowa. 5. Hannah, who 
married Jacob Brown, removed to Iowa, and died there. 6. 
John T., who married Lydia Moore, moved to Iowa, thence 
to Kansas, where he died. About the year 1833, John Mar- 
tin removed to Linn county, Iowa, and died there, March 
18, 1871. 






^^^^^ 



WAYNE TOWNSHIP. 351 

Benjamin L. Martin, son of John Martin, was born in 
Chester county, Pa., December 27, 1806, and in 1831, was 
married to Sarah Chrisman. In 1839, he removed to Wayne 
township in this county, and in 1849 to Centerville, where he 
M'as engaged as clerk in the auditor's ofiice until 1855, when 
he was elected county auditor, and in 1859 was re-elected for 
a second term. In 1863, he was appointed by President Lin- 
coln paymaster in the army in the Mississippi department, 
and served in the Cumberland, Potomac, and North-western 
departments ; and was mustered out of service in December, 
1865. On his return from the army, he settled near Chester, 
on the farm on which he now resides. In 1866, he was elected 
a representative in the legislature, and re-elected in 1870, 
which otfice he now holds. He had seven children, besides 
two that died in infancy: 1. Rebecca IST. S., who was married 
to Wm. S. Boyd. 2. Nathan W., to Artelissa Cheeseman, and 
is on a farm near Chester. 3. John Wesley, to Jennie Jones, 
and is a merchant at Chester. 4. Benjamin F., to Sarah Al- 
media Jemison, of Centerville. 5. William C, to Angelina 
Hunt, and lives in Lawrence, Kansas. 6. Isaac N., unmar- 
ried, in Harrisburg, Pa. 7. Theodore S., unmarried, at home. 

Meek Families. — Jacob Meek, from Kentuck}^, in 1806, 
settled two miles south of Richmond, where Charles Price 
lately resided. His sons were : John, who removed from the 
county, and died. Jeremiah L., who came to the township 
in 1807. [Sk.] Isaac, who, after a residence here of many 
years, removed to Illinois, and died there. William, who mar- 
ried Patsey Hoi man. Jacob Meek's daughters were Patsey, 
who married Elijah Fisher, an early sheriff of the county ; 
Efhe, who married William Grimes. 

Jeremiah L. Meek was born in Pennsylvania, in the year 
1780, moved with his father to Kentucky ; and in the winter 
of 1805-6, his father came to Whitewater, and was soon fol- 
lowed by Jeremiah, who found his father there living in a 
cabin on the place where Alexander Grimes afterward lived 
and died. In the spring following, he, with others, went with 
iive horses to Lawrenceburg, in quest of breadstuff, and 
were gone seven days. Lodging in the woods, they piled up 
brush to lie on for fear of snakes. They returned Avith a 



352 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

supply to last until fall. His pioneer experience was an 
interesting one. His sons were: 1. William, who married 
Sally, a daughter of Daniel Fonts ; afterward removed to the 
west. 2. Franklin, who married a daughter of Wm. Lamb, 
and lives at Des Moines, Iowa, where Mr. Lamb died. 3. 
Morton, who married Jane, a daughter of Smith Hunt, and 
resides where his father died, two miles below Richmond, on 
the west side of the river. 4. Jeremiah L., who married a 
daughter of D. Wilson. 5. Alexander G., who died unmar- 
ried. 

Jeremiah Meek, from Kentucky, a cousin of Jeremiah L., 
also came about the year 1807. He was one of the first asso- 
ciate judges of the county courts; a member of the consti- 
tutional convention of 1816, and afterward a member of the 
legislature. 

John Meek, sometimes called " little John," was a brother 
of Jeremiah, the judge. His sons were: 1. William, who 
removed from the county about fifty years ago. 2. Joseph, 
who married a daughter of John Smith, of Richmond, and 
resides in Abington. 3. John, who married Polly, a daugh- 
ter of Jeremiah L. Meek, and removed from the county. 4. 
Jeptlia, who removed west some forty years ago. A daugh- 
ter of John Meek married John Smith, Jun., who lives in 
Wabash county. Another daughter married Daniel Fraley, 
and removed from the county. 

Joshua Meek, also a brother of Jeremiah, the judge, died 
in the township. He had a son, Jacob, who resides in Cen- 
ter. Rachel, a sister of Judge Meek, was the wife of Hugh 
Cull. 

Charles Moffitt was born in North Carolina, September 
25, 1774, and was married, in 1804, to Elizabeth Cox, who 
was born July 6, 1784, and was a sister of Jeremiah Cox, Sen. 
Moffitt removed to Wayne township in 1811, and settled on 
the farm on which his sou Hugh Moffitt resides, near Rich- 
mond, where he lived until his decease, December, 1845. His 
widow died ISToveniber 30, 1860. They had twelve children, 
besides one that died in infancy : 1. Hugh, above mentioned. 
2. Jeremiah, who married Cynthia Ann Cook, and settled at 
Thorntown, Ind., where he died, and where she lives with a 




'juyri^^y vV 




WAYNE TOWNSHIP. 353 

second husband, James Woody. 3. Tacy, who married "Wm. 
Cloud ; both reside there. 4. Eunice, unmarried, at Rich- 
mond. 5. Hannah, who married, first, Jacob Craig, who died 
of cholera, in 1834 ; second. Dr. James W. Marmon, who died 
of cholera in 1849 ; she died a month after. 6. John, who 
married Martha Caldwell, and after her death, Laura Aired; 
he lives in Indianapolis. 7. Marj^ who died young. 8. Na- 
than, who married lihoda Ann Johnson, daughter of James 
Johnson, late of Richmond, and died at 29. She married 
Wm. Butler, of Ohio, and removed to Iowa. 9. Ruth, who 
married Dr. Joseph J. Perry, of Richmond. 10. Elizabeth, 
wife of Alpheus Test, of Boston towhship. 11. Abijah, who 
married Lydia, daughter of Wm. Townsend, decea:^ed, and 
owns the homestead of his father, but resides at Thorntown, 
Boone county. 12. Anna F., wife of Eli Stubbs, of Rich- 
mond. 

Hugh Moffitt, son of Charles Moffitt, was born March 21, 
1806, in ISTorth Carolina, and came, when young, with his 
father to Wayne, in 1811. He married Mary Chi!dre, of Ohio. 
They never had children. They have, however, adopted 
and reared a number, one of whom was Mary Barker, 
now the wife of Wm. Baxter. Hugh Moffitt settled soon 
after marriage at Thorntown, Boone county, and returned in 
January, 1845, having, with his brother jSTathan, bought his 
father's grist-mill, now owned by Benjamin and Ezra Hill, 
with the land adjoining, where he now resides, in the enjoy- 
ment, in large measure, of the comforts and blessings of a 
well-ordered life. 

Joseph Parry was born in Pennsylvania in 1788, and re- 
moved, in 1827, to Richmond, and died in 1870. A\^ith him 
came six children, all of them still living : William, Robert, 
Isaac, Grace, Mordecai, George. William, [Sk.] Robert, 
Grace, wife of Cornelius Vauzant, and Mordecai, reside in 
Richmond ; Isaac in Norristown, Penn. ; George, since 1849, 
in California. 

William Parry, son of Joseph Parry, was born in Mont- 
gomery county, Penn., in 1810, and came, in 1827, with his 
father, to Richmond. He worked for many years at his trade — 
that of plasterer, and then purchased the farm on which he 
26 



354 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

now resides, two miles north of Eichmond. In 1849-51, he 
constructed the turnpike from Richmond to Williamsburg, 
and was elected president of the company, and has remained 
such to the present time. He was also president of the 
"Wayne County Turnpike Company from 1858 till October, 
1871, when the pressure of other business compelled him to 
resign. In 1868, he was elected president of the Cincinnati, 
Richmond, and Fort Wayne Railroad Company, which posi- 
tion he still occupies. Under his energetic supervision the 
road is rapidly approaching completion ; and before the close 
of the present year [1871,] will be opened to Fort Wayne. 
And since the year 1853, he has held the office of township 
trustee. He is an active and efficient member of the society 
of Friends. In 1833, he was married to Mary, daughter of 
Robert Hill. Their children are Joseph, who married Jen- 
nie Ivins ; Sarah; Susannah; Robert; Samuel, who married 
Mattie Smith, in October, 1871 ; Elizabeth, and Mary. 

Enoch Railsback, son of David, was born in North Caro- 
lina, May 26, 1798, and removed with his father's family to 
this county in 1807. He married Nancy Fonts, daughter of 
Jacob Fonts. After a temporary residence in several places, 
he settled permanently, where he now resides, on Wayne 
township west line, a part of his farm having been the site of 
Salisbury. He had six children : Sarah, wife of Andrew Elia- 
son. Elizabeth, wife of John Sellars, Mound City, Kansas. 
Elvonia, wife of John Pugh, and died at Centerville, Jan. 1, 
1851. Jehiel, unmarried, attorney at law, at Richmond. 
Mary B., who married Fabius Fleming, Richmond. Lycur- 
gus, who married Lizzy Binford, of 111., and lives in Marshall, 
Iowa. The Railsback family have an honorable connection 
with the war of the Revolution. The Colonel relates the fol- 
lowing reminiscences : His father, David Railsback, was as- 
sistant wagon-boy for his brother Edward, who drove a four- 
horse baggage-wagon for the Colonial army. At Gen. 
Gates' defeat in South Carolina, while the American forces 
were giving way, he drove his team hastily into a thicket, 
and soon saw the British light-horse pursuing our forces, 
who met with great slaughter. Late at night he left the 
place of his concealment, and returned safely with his team 
to North Carolina. Henry Railsback, an older brother, was 




r>'r/>^^ 



ec 



WAYNE TOWNSHIP. 355 

a company officer in Gen. Gates' army, and was captured by 
the British. On reaching their lines he saw many of his 
Tory neighbors who hud joined the British army. He was 
taken sick, and never got home. 

Cornelius Ratliff, Sen, was born in Bucks Co., Pa., about 
the year 1755. He was a son of Joseph Eatlift", who came 
over from England with "William Penn, and was present at 
the making of the famed treaty with the Indians under the 
great elm. He removed, when young, with his father to 
North Carolina. He there married widow Elizabeth Charles, 
and in iSTovember, 1810, came to Whitewater, and settled a 
mile north of Richmond, on the farm on which his son Cor- 
nelius now resides, and which he had purchased in 1808. 
He was a member of the society of Friends. He had eight 
children, all born in North Carolina. All lived to the age 
of majority, and were married as follows : Mary, in N. C, to 
Robert, son of John Smith; both deceased. Elizabeth, to 
Nathan Overman, who settled near Centerville. Gulielma, to 
Andrew Hoover, and resides in Clinton Co. Joseph, to Mary 
Shugart, of New Garden, and died near Marion, Grant Co. 
Sarah, to John Shugart, of New Garden. Millicent, lirst, to 
Benj. Albertson ; second, to Thomas Newman ; both deceased. 
Cornelius, to Mary Kinley. Abigail, to Joshua Albertson, 
and died in Clay township, where he still resides. 

Cornelius Ratliff, son of the above-named, was born in 
North Carolina, Dec. 25, 1798, and came to this county with 
his father in 1810. He 'still resides on the farm on which he 
settled with his father, having never left the old homestead. 
He was married to Mary Kinley, who was born March 15, 
1802. They had ten children, of whom six are living and 
married : Margaret, to Simon Wood, and resides at Greens- 
boro, Henry Co. Joseph C, to Mary Crawford, and lives in 
Center township. Elizabeth, to Thompson Harris, and re- 
sides in Center. Sarah, to Timothy Thistlethwaite, and lives 
in Richmond. William P., to Jane Snyder, and resided in 
Richmond; was a merchant, and died in April, 1871. Cor- 
nelius, to Margaret Masterson, and resides on the farm with 
his father. 

Miles J. Shinn was born in New Jersey, October 3, 1820; 



356 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

came to Richmond in 1838, with Reuben H. Ivins,with whom 
he served an apprenticeship at shoemaking. In 1842, he set 
up business for himself; but sold out the same year to John 
Fleming, and engaged as a journeyman to Owen Edgerton. 
In 1845, he again established himself in the business. lie 
married, September 18, 1849, Anna C, daughter of Thomas 
jSTewman. In 1850, he settled on the Newman farm, and in 
1851 built on it the house in which he now resides, and where 
he still carries on his trade. In 1854, he formed a partner- 
sliip with Joseph P. Ratliif and Timothy Thistlethwaite in 
establishing a paper mill, and in 1857 he sold his interest to 
Samuel C. Hill. He has been an active suj^iorter of the 
cause of temperance ; having been allied with various tem- 
perance associations, several of which were organized by him 
and with his assistance. And he is now a member of the 
State Temperance Alliance. He has never spent three cents 
for intoxicating liquor to be drank as a beverage, or for that 
other scourge of the hunian race, tobacco. He joined the 
Whitewater Lodge of I. O. O. F. in 1847, and be has ever 
since taken a prominent part in the organization and support 
of associations of the order. A friend of intellectual im- 
provement, he originated and assisted in organizing, in 1842, 
a literary society called the Washington Institute of Rich- 
mond ; and, in 1850, took an active part in organizing a simi- 
lar society of the same name in the Ratlifl' school district, in 
which he resides. This society is still continued, and has a 
respectable library. He was also one of those who formed, 
many years ago, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 
Richmond, since discontinued. Mr. Shinn lias had four 
children, three sons and a daughter: Newman Howard, Miles 
Webster, James Eddy, and Indiana C. Miles W. died Janu- 
ary 6, 1870. 

Samuel Shute, from N. J., in 1818, settled where his son 
Aaron now lives, near the south-east corner of the town- 
ship, where he died about 1857. His son Charles, who mar- 
ried Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Hill, died about 1862. 
Aaron, Robert, and Samuel are the only sons living. The 
wives of Samuel Erwin and James L. Morrisson are dauoli- 



WAYNE TOWNSHIP. 357 

ters of Sanuiel Sbute. Alice, daughter of Aaron Shiite, is 
tlie wife of Dr. "W. R. Webster, of liichmond. 

"William Thistlethwaite was born in Yorkshire, England, 
in the year 1792, and emigrated to this country in 1817. He 
resided a short time in Delaware, and removed to Chester, 
Pa. Determined on removing' to the west, he came to Cin- 
cinnati, where he made but a temporary stay, and, in the fall 
of 1829, came to Richmond, where he remained but a short 
time. Having a large family of minor children, and having 
been bred a farmer, he bought the farm originally owned by 
John Charles, an early settler, [1809,] now the farm of Wm. 
Baxter, near Richmond, to which he removed in the spring 
of 1830. After having remained a few years on this farm, 
which he conducted with unusual success, he sold it to Oliver 
Kinsey, and bought a larger and newer farm further west, on 
or near the line of Center township, where he continued 
farming on a more extensive scale for several years, and re- 
tired, leaving the farm in the care of a son, and purchasing a 
country seat about a mile west of Richmond. Here he lost 
the partner of his life and labors, and, in 1856, revisited the 
land of his birth, and returned to this country. In his 70th 
year he was again married; and died on the 16th of August, 
1871, in the 80th year of his age. 

Joseph Wasson was born in England. Soon after his mar- 
riage, he embarked with his wife for America. They settled 
for a brief period in Pennsylvania, and removed to the Caro- 
linas, where they resided until they had reared a family of 
seven sons and two daughters, a period embracing that of 
the American Revolution, in which he was a soldier. (Jren. 
Greene, who had command of the southern forces, detailed a 
party to look after the tories who infested that part of the 
country. In a skirmish with them, Wasson was shot by 
one from behind a tree, and disabled for life. The ball 
lodged in his loins, where it remained nearly forty 3'^ears, 
when it was extracted by a skillful surgeon a few years 
before his death in this township. After his children had 
nearly all arrived at mature age, he left North Carolina, and, 
in 1806, settled on East Fork, near the Ohio state line, where 
now Flemins: Wasson resides. His children were : 1. Archi- 



358 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

bald, who married, in IST. C, Elizabeth Smith, and after about 
two years' sojourn in Kentucky, settled in 1809 near the resi- 
dence of his father. Ilis children were : Calvin, who mar- 
ried Marv, daughter of "Wm. Bond, and died in January, 
1871, at Flainfield, Ind. ; Jehiel, who married, first, Lydia 
Bond, sister of Calvin's wife ; second, Mrs. Mason, and re- 
sides at Milton ; Anselm, who married Ruth, daughter of 
Israel Clark, and died at Mansfield, Ind,, February 9, 1871 ; 
Abigail and Sarah, who both died in infancy; John Macamy, 
[Sk.] and Eliza, who married Jonathan Moore, and resides in 
Richmond. 2. Joseph, second son of Joseph Wasson, Sen., 
settled in Eaton, Ohio, and died there. 3. David married 
Elizabeth, a daughter of Judge Peter Fleming, and died 
about 1825. His son, Fleming "Wasson, resides in this town- 
ship. 4. Nathaniel McCoy married Jane Strong, and died in 
1868. 5. John married Mary Smith, in ]^. C, and died in 
Wayne township about the time of David's death. 6. Ezra 
married Jane Campbell, and died in 1847, in Whitle}^ county, 
Ind. His son, John H. Wasson, lives in Richmond, and is 
agent of the Ohio Salt Company. 7. Lemuel, unmarried, re- 
sides in Richmond. 8. 31ary married Josiah Campbell, and 
died at Logausport about fifteen years ago. 9. Elizabeth 
married Jonathan Lambert, and died at Union City about 
1865. 

Joseph White was born in Kentucky in the year 1800, and 
came to Wayne township about 1810, with his mother, who 
settled with the family near Middleboro'. [See Sketch of 
the White family, Franklin township.] Joseph remained 
with his mother until 1836, when they removed 3 miles south 
to where he died in December, 1868, near the Ohio state line, 
east from Richmond. In 1821, he married Alice Clawson. 
Their children are: Josiah, who married Eliza Coburu, and 
after her death, he married the next year, [1852,] Hannah E. 
Frame. James, who married Anna T. Stedom. Lydia, wife 
of Reese Mendenhall. David, who married !N'ancy Straw- 
bridge. Anna E., wife of II. G. Xickle. John. WiUiam, 
who married Sarah H. Strawbridge. Joseph C, who married 
Hannah D. Dilks. Mrs. White and all her children reside in 
Richmond and Wayne township. 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 359 



RICHMOND. 



A sketch of the settlement of the lands of John Smith and 
Jeremiah Cox on which Richmond stands, prior to its incor- 
poration as a town, has been given in the foregoing history of 
Wayne township. In 1816, Smith laid out into town lots the 
land along Front and Pearl streets, south of Main street. The 
survey was made by David Hoover; and the lots were "five 
poles wide, and eight poles back." An acre, called the Public 
Square, was reserved by Smith for such public uses as he 
should think proper. The plat, it appears, was a small one. 

The date of the birth of the town is generally supposed to 
be 1816. It had no corporate existence, however, until after 
Cox's addition in 1818, which embraced lands north of Main 
street and west of Marion. Agreeably to an act of the legis- 
lature, the citizens met on the 1st of Sept., 1818, at the house 
of Thomas and Justice, and unanimously declared themselves 
in favor of the incorporation of the town. Twenty-four votes 
were polled. On the 14th of Sept., at an election held at the 
same place, Ezra Bos well, Thomas Swain, Robert Morrisson, 
John McLane, and Peter Johnson were elected trustees. The 
proceedings of both meetings were signed by Thomas Swain, 
as president, and Ezra Boswell, as clerk. 

The authority given to the trustees by the general act under 
which the town was incorporated being deemed inadequate to 
its efiicient government, the citizens petitioned the legislature 
for a special charter, which was granted. The charter was 
adopted by a vote of the citizens; and on the 13th of March, 
1834, the day appointed for the election of borough officers, 
the following named persons were chosen : 

First Burgess — John Sailor. Second Burgess — Basil Bright- 
well. CouNCiLMEN — John Finley, Daniel P. Wiggins, Benj. 
Fulghum, Samuel Stokes, Wm. S. Addleman, John Sufirins, 
"Wm. Dulin, Edmund Grover, Albert C Blanchard, Caleb 
Shearon, John Hughes, Joseph Parry, Joseph P. Osborn. As- 
sessor — Jacob Sanders. Treasurer — Eli Brown, llioii Con- 
stable — Isaac Barnes. 



360 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

These officers, for reasons which do not appear, held their 
offices only until May, when another election was held, and 
the following were chosen : 

First Burgess — John Brady, Second Burgess — Basil 
Brightwell. Councilmen — John Suff'rins, Daniel P. Wiggins, 
John Sailor, Samuel Stokes, Albert C. Blanchard, Wm. S. Ad- 
dleman, Samuel W. Smith, Caleb Shearon, Wm. Duhn, John 
M. Laws, Joseph Block, Alexander Stokes, David Hook. As- 
sessor — Jacob Sanders. Treasurer — Eli Brown. High Con- 
stable — Charles O'Harra. 

Richmond was governed under this borough charter until 
1840, when it was incorporated as a city, under a cliarter 
adopted by the citizens ; and on tiie 4th of May, the following 
officers were elected : 

Mayor — John Sailor. Councilmen — First Ward, Basil 
Brightwell, Benj. Strattan. Second Ward, Henry Hollings- 
worth, AV^m, Cox. Third Ward, "Wm. Parry, Irvin Reed, 
Fourth Ward, iSTathan ^Morgan, Stephen Swain. Treasurer — 
John Haines. Marshal — Jesse Meek. Assessor — Eli Brown. 

In Dec, 1865, a general law was passed, authorizing the 
people of atiy town to establish a city government without a 
special act of the legislature. Under this law, city officers 
were elected for two years. Of the councilmen, one was chosen 
in each ward every year for the term of two years. 

John Sailor was, by successive elections, continued in the 
office of Mayor until January, 1852. He was succeeded by 
John rinle}^ who hold the office until his death, in 1866. Lewis 
D. Stubbs Avas chosen at a special election to fill the vacancy 
for the remainder of the term. Thomas ]^. Young was 
elected for the next two years; and in 1869, was succeeded by 
Thomas W. Bennett. James M. Poe, the present incumbent, 
was elected in 1871. 

The clerk was appointed by the council until 1853 ; in which 
year, and since, he has been chosen at the city elections. The 
office was held by David P. Holloway until his resignation in 
ISTovember, 1853 ; by Wm. W. Lynde until January, 1856; by 
Wm. A. Bickle until 1858; by Benj. W. Davis until January, 
1866, when he was succeeded by Peter P. Kirn, who still holds 
the office. 



'i 



■■■;i^ 










Sir.' 



/X 




.<::?wK--^-t^ 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 361 

In 1826, Charles W. Starr bouglit of Jeremiah Cox his un- 
sold lands; since wliich time several additions have been 
made to the town plat, by John and Samuel AV, Smith, and by 
John Smith, in 1827 ; by Charles W. Starr, in 1828, 1833, 1834, 
and 1836 ; and by several other persons since. 

The reason why North Front street was so run as not to 
form rio^ht angles with Main, is thus given by Dr. Plummer 
in his Reminiscences : "At that time there ran along the edge 
of the hill a county road, the first perhaps laid out in Wayne 
count3^ . . . To continue South Front street directly north, 
would rnn it into wet grounds unsuitable for a street and for 
building lots; besides, the street would ultimately run into the 
river. On the hill was a road already established ; no ground 
would again have to be relinquished for a street. Forty feet 
was probably the width of the road, and that was sufficiently 
wide for the wants of the town. Lots were accordingly laid 
out along this road; and the corners of Main and Front streets 
became important points. These are the oldest streets, and for 
a long while were the only ones in liichmond." 

The town was first called Smithsville, after the name of its 
proprietor ; but, as Judge Hoover says in his Memoir, " the 
name not giving general satisffiction, Thomas Roberts, James 
Pegg, and myself, were chosen to select another. Roberts pro- 
posed Waterford ; Pegg, Flaivjield, and I, liichmond. The last 
was approved by the lot-holders." 

Presuming that all the legal voters were present at the first 
election of officers, and allowing six inhabitants to each voter, 
which is generally about the average proportion, the popula- 
tion would have been about 150. In 1819, it was estimated at 
350. Although this estimate shows a much more rapid in- 
crease than was maintained for several years afterward, it was 
probably not far from the truth. There w^ere, when the town 
was incorporated, the stores of John Smith and Robert Mor- 
risson ; and there were mechanics of most or all of the more 
common trades, whose number continued to increase with the 
increase of the population of the surrounding country. 

In accordance with the prescribed plan of our history, we 
give the names and occupations of some of the earlier citizens. 



362 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

It is impossible, however, at this late day, to state, in regard to 
most of them, the year in which each became a resident of 
the town. 

3Ierchants. 

As is usual in new countries, the early merchants of Rich- 
mond kept the various kinds of goods wanted by the settlers. 
They were not designated as dry goods merchants, hardware 
merchants, druggists, grocers, &c. Not until the country had be- 
come well settled, was it possible to keep up an establishment 
confined to any one of these branches of trade. This division of 
business, as it is called, was not commenced until about the year 
1825, fifteen years after the first store had been established ; nor 
until after the advent of the first printer, by whom the mer- 
chants were enabled to advertise, in show-bills and the news- 
paper, the long lists of their wares, embracing dry goods, gro- 
ceries, queensware, glassware, hardware, nails, bar, band, hoop, 
and sheet-iron, school books and stationery, and dyestufis ; 
sometimes adding drugs and medicines, and not excepting 
brandy, rum, gin, and whisky : and this list was generally sup- 
plemented with a string of etceteras, or " every other article 
usually kept in country stores." 

The early business men were at length obliged to divide 
the gains of capital and labor with a new set of rivals. Fa- 
vorable reports from the flourishing town of Richmond had 
gone abroad, and immigrants from the east, especially Friends, 
came in. Edward L, Frost, from Long Island, N. Y., with 
whom, as already stated, John Smith was for a short time as- 
sociated in trade, was probably the first merchant in town after 
Robert Morrisson. He afterward traded alone on Front street, 
south of Main, and removed to the south-east corner of Main 
and Pearl streets, where he built, and for several years occu- 
pied, a two-story frame building, subsequently removed to 
make room for the present brick building made of the bricks 
which had formed the walls of the court-house at Salisbury, 
after the removal of the county-seat to Centerville. Philemon 
H. Frost was a clerk for his brother Edward, and, some think, 
became a partner. 

John Suftrius, a native of Virginia, came from Ohio to 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 363 

Eichmond, and commenced trade in August, 1818, on the east 
side of jSTorth Front street, near Main, and soon after bought 
of Thomas and Justice their building on the north-east corner 
of Main and Front streets. He was in business four or five 
years, and returned to Ohio, where he worked again at his 
trade, [the hatter's] about three years; and about the year 
1826, he came again to Richmond, and engaged in the hat- 
making business, which he carried on many years in Gilbert's 
block. He married Harriet, daughter of the late Samuel 
Shute, and after her death, a Mrs. Thompson, who also died. 
He is still in the hat trade, south side of Main street, between 
Pearl and Marion. James McGuire, an Irishman, after Saf- 
frins, traded a short time at the same place, corner of Main 
and Front streets. 

Atticus Siddall, who had taught school in the village, suc- 
ceeded Frost at Ham's corner. He was for a time alone; af- 
terward in company with a Dr. Cook. His health failed, and 
he died many years ago. He was the father of Jesse P. Sid- 
dall, for many years, and at present, a prominent lawyer in 
Richmond. 

About the year 1822, John Wright, from Maryland, com- 
menced business on Main street, between Front and Pearl. 
He remained a few years, and the family dispersed. The 
business was continued by his son-in-law, Basil Brightwell, 
who also built a flouring-mill near the site of Jackson, Swajme 
& Dunn's woolen mills, below the ISTational bridge. He had 
an extensive trade, and was apparently — perhaps really — 
successful for several years. He became deeply embarrassed, 
and, apprehending bankruptcy, committed suicide, leaving 
only a son, his wife having died a few years before. His son 
also died a few years afterward. 

Joseph P. Plummer, from Baltimore, after a brief stay in 
Cincinnati, came to Richmond in 1823, and commenced 
business on South Front street, in a building previously oc- 
cupied by Edward L. Frost, whence he removed to his 
new frame store, corner of Main and South Front, since 
known as Plummer's corner, where now stands the brick 
store of Thomas Nestor. 

Joseph P. Strattau, a native of Virginia, came from Ohio 



864 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

in 1824 or 1825 ; was first a cleric for Edward L. Frost, and 
afterward for Robert Morrisson, on the north-west corner of 
Main and Pearl streets, where he built a store after the de- 
struction of his first by fire. Strattau, then in partnership 
with Morrisson, the latter furnishing the goods, com- 
menced trade at the corner first occupied by Morrisson, a 
building having been removed to that place — firm, J; P. 
Strattan & Co. Morrisson, who continued his store at the 
corner of Pearl street, sold a part of his goods to James 
Woods, a clerk of Frost, who took them to Liberty, where he 
established a store. Strattan having formed a partnership 
with Daniel Reid, a clerk of Morrisson, [firm, Strattan & 
Reid,] Morrisson sold them his remaining stock of goods, 
and retired finally from the mercantile business. After about 
three years Strattan bought out Reid, and a year or two after 
sold out to his brother Benjamin Strattan, and bought a farm 
4 miles north of town, about the year 1833; remained there 
four years, and sold his farm to Oren Huntington, then a 
merchant in Richmond, taking his stock of goods in part 
payment. He took the goods to Dublin, a new town, where 
he traded about ten years ; was at Louisville, Henry Co., two 
years; and returned to Richmond in 1858. 

David Holloway, who had removed in 1813 from Waynes- 
ville, Ohio, to Cincinnati, came in 1823 to Wayne township, 
and bought the homestead of Judge Peter Fleming, near the 
state line, and, in 1825, removed to Richmond, and com- 
menced business on the north-east corner of Main and Front 
streets. After a few years of successful business he retired, 
and was succeeded by Wm. Hill, son of Robert Hill, an early 
settler. He bought another farm a short distance north-east 
from the town, and a few years after returned to Richmond, 
corner of Pearl and Spring streets, where he died in 1855. 

Jeremy Mansur, an early settler, and for several years a 
skillful edge-tool maker at Salisbury and for many years a 
farmer about 3 miles west from Richmond, commenced the 
mercantile business in the city in 1831, on the south-west 
corner of Main and Pearl streets, known as Plummer's cor- 
ner, and continued the business about eight 3^ears, and re- 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 365 

turned to liis farm. lu 1852, lie removed to Indianapolis, 
where he now resides. 

Edmnnd Evans, of English birth, who came from Balti- 
more with a grown-up family about the year 1831, and bought 
a farm a short distance south-east from town, started, some 
years after, a wholesale and retail leather store, to which he 
finally added dry goods. His store was on Plummer's cor- 
ner, and had been previously occupied b}' Jeremy Mansur. 
He died many years ago, and more recently his wife. 

Isaac Gray, from Virginia, came to Richmond in the fall 
of 1827, and was in the mercantile business about two years. 
His store was on the ground now occupied by T. J. Bargis's 
stove store, on Main street, north side, between Pearl and 
Front streets. In 1829, in company with others, he removed 
to Mies, Mich., where he was the first postmaster. A daugh- 
ter of his is the present wife of Daniel Reid. Other chil- 
dren of his are living in Niles and elsewhere. 

Oren Huntington, from Mass., came to Richmond in Sept., 
1831, and went the next year to Anderson, where he was for 
6 years successfully engaged in the mercantile business. He 
returned in 1838; engaged the next year as clerk for Samuel 
Fleming, a son of Jndge Peter Fleming; and in 1840, in 
company with jS"athan Wilson, bought Fleming's stock in 
trade, which, a year or two afterward, they sold to Cook and 
Siddall. In or about the year 1844, he resumed trade, and in 
1845, sold his goods to Joseph P. Strattan for a farm a few 
miles north of Richmond. After a few years of farming, he 
exchanged his farm with Benj. Fulghum for his brick house, 
corner of Main and Franklin streets, which had been fitted up 
for a public house. He soon remodeled the house, and es- 
tablished a first-class hotel, known as the Huntington House, 
of which he is still the owner. 

Benjamin Strattan, from , came when a youth, and 

served several years as a clerk for J. P. Strattan & Co., and 
afterward for Strattan & Reid, then in Morrisson's building, 

corner of Main and Pearl streets. In or about the year , 

he bought the goods of his brother, Joseph P., then sole pro- 
l)rietor, and subsequently the building of Morrisson. He 
continued in business, alone and in partnership, many years, 



366 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

and retired to a country seat and farm 3 miles east of the 
city, where he was for several years farmer and horticultur- 
ist. In 186-, he sold his farm, returned to the city, and is 
again in the mercantile business. 

Joseph W. Gilbert, from Pa., came to Richmond in 1835, 
and commenced the mercantile business on Main street, be- 
tween Marion and Pearl, and discontinued the business in or 
about 1852. In 1855, he built the brick block on what is 
known as Gilbert's corner. During a part of the time he 
was in trade, he also kept a public house. He was also for 
twenty-eight years a mail-contractor and large stage pro- 
prietor, having lines running to Dayton, Indianapolis, Wa- 
bash, and other places. He resides in the city, and is 72 
years of age. 

Division of Business — Drug Stores, Bookstores^ Hardware 

Stores. 

The natural result of the increase of population and trade 
in Richmond and the surrounding country, was the division 
of business. The time was at hand when silks and iron, laces 
and fish, pins and crow-bars, pork and molasses, tea and tar, 
were not all to be had at every store. As early as 1825, 
Warner & Morrisson [Dr. Warner and Robert Morrisson] ad- 
vertised " Drugs and Medicines, Oils, Paints, Dye-stuffs, 
Patent Medicines, &c., &c." But the era in trade alluded to 
can not, perhaps, be properly said to have commenced so 
early. The first store confined to a separate branch of trade, 
and comprising a considerable stock of goods, was a Drug 
Store, established by Irvin Reid, in 1833 ; embracing, besides 
drugs and medicines, those articles usually accompanying, as 
paints, oil, dye-stuffs, &c., and an assortment of Books and 
Stationery. After a few years he dropped the book business, 
and continued the drug business until 1852. He then sold 
out, bought the farm of Edmund Evans, his father-in-law, 
near the city, to which he removed. In 1859, having sold his 
farm in parcels to German immigrants, he returned to the 
city, and engaged in the Hardware trade, which is still con- 
tinued under the firm of Irvin Reid & Son. 

In 1836 or 1837, Jesse Stanley established a Bookstore, 
which he continued but a short time. After Stanley, Will- 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 367 

iam R. Smith and Swaiu kept a bookstore. Benjamin Dug- 
dale, whether before or after Stanley, has not been ascertained, 
established a bookstore, which was continued by him for 
many years until his death, and by his sons for some years 
after. 

The first independent Grocery Store, says Dr. Phimmer, was 
commenced in 1838, by Haines & Farquliar. 'In 184G, Benton 
& Fletcher established a Hardware Store. They dissolved 
partnership and divided the stock, Benton continuing at the 
stand of the firm, now Citizens' Bank corner, and Fletcher 
removing to the w^est side of Main street, between Pearl and 
Marion. 

Innkce'pers. 

It is related of Jeremiah Cox, that he had at first regarded 
with disfavor the scheme of building up a town ; and he is said 
to have remarked, that he " would rather see a buck's tail than 
a tavern sign." If he spoke in reference to the eflects of this 
"institution" upon the morals and prosperity of some com- 
munities, the remark was not an unwise one. His sincerity 
was evident from the fact, that he did not make his addition to 
the town plat until two years after the date of Smith's survey, 
or two years after Philip Harter had a sign swinging near a 
log building on lot 6, South Pearl street. Another early tav- 
ern was kept at the north-east corner of Main and Pearl, sign 
of a "green tree," by Jonathan Bayles, and another, of later 
date, on Front street, near the south-west corner of Main, by 
Ephraim Lacey. Harter soon afterward kept a tavern at the 
corner of Korth Pearl and Main, where the Citizens' Bank now 
stands, then called Barter's corner. Another tavern was kept 
on Gilbert's corner, north-west corner of Main and Marion, 
first, it is believed, by Abraham Jeft'ries, afterward by several 
dift'erent persons. 

liichard Cheeseman was an early settler, lived on South 
Front street, kept a tavern several years, and removed to 
Center township, where he died. William, a nephew, re- 
mained in liichmond,and married a Miss Moffitt. Both, it is 
believed, are living. John Baldwin, an original Carolinian, 
early kept a tavern and store at the Citizens' Bank corner. He 
went west, and became a trader with the Indians. Their sav- 



368 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

age nature having at one time been excited by liquor which 
he had sold them, they scalped, or partially scalped, him alive ; 
but he survived the operation. He returned to the county, and 
died six miles north of Richmond, in 1869. Next to Baldwin, 
Wm. II. Vaughan occupied the stand for several years, and 
the tavern was discontinued. Vaughan had previously kept 
for a time the Lacey stand on Front street. Patrick Justice 
early kept a tavern on ISTorth Front street, near Main, for sev- 
eral years. He afterward kept a public house which he built 
in 1827, near the extreme limits of the town, now the south- 
east corner of Main and Fifth streets. He removed from the 
county; and the house, after having been used as a tavern a 
few years longer, was turned to mechanical uses. 

Benj. Paige, a l^ew Englander, father of Ralph Paige, now 
a merchant in Main street, kept a tavern previously to 1830, at 
the corner originally owned by John C. Kibbey, an early inn- 
keeper, and known as Meek's corner, north-east corner of Main 
and Marion. Abraham Jeffries had a tavern on Gilbert's cor- 
ner; kept it some years, and was succeeded by Joseph An- 
drews, a brother-in-law, who died soon after. 

Mechanics. 

Blacksmiths. — John Hunt is said to have been the first 
blacksmith in Richmond. He built a shop on South Front 
street, east side, in 1816. Lewis Bark cut in one day the logs 
for the building, including the ribs and weight poles, on 
Smith's land about two squares east, for 75 cents, the job being 
considered about three days' work. John McLane was proba- 
bly the next blacksmith (some think the first) in the town. He 
and his son John, and Isaac Jackson, were the })rincipal 
smiths until after 1820. He was a member of the first board 
of trustees of the town, elected in 1818. Lewis Burk, about 
the year 1817, commenced the business 2J miles south of town, 
and afterward worked as journeyman and in his own shop 
about twelve years. He was heard to say, while in business in 
Main street, that he had ironed a wagon for Wm. Mitchell, an 
early settler near New Paris, O., for which he received 1,800 
pounds of dressed pork, at $1 per hundred, aud sold it to Sam- 
uel W. Siiiith at the same price. 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 369 

Archibald Wasson, an early settler near Ohio line, removed 
to town, in 1829, and carried on the blacksmithing business for 
many years; Jehiel, a son of his, came in 1831, and worked 
at the same business several years, on Main street, east side of 
the town. John H. Thomas came from Delaware with a young 
family, and has w^orked at blacksmithing ever since. George 
McCullough, about the same time from the same place, carried 
on the business many years, on Franklin street, near Main ; af- 
terward became a partner in the firm of llorney & Co., in the 
manufacture of plows, near the railroad depot. He was for sev- 
eral years foreman in the iron department. In 1865, he re- 
ceived a severe injury, w^hich for a long time disqualified him 
for labor. He is still connected with the firm above men- 
tioned. 

David Maulsby, from Maryland, about 1830, purchased on 
Pearl and Spring streets. He carried on his trade successfully 
for a number of years, and retired, leaving the business in the 
hands of his only son, John L. Maulsby. He died soon after, 
suddenly, of apo[)lex3\ 

Mordecai Parry, a brother of William, was for many years a 
blacksmith in Richmond. By industry and frugality while at 
his trade, and by the subsequent economical management of 
his aft'airs, he has been successful in his acquisitions. 

Carpenters. — The first carpenter in Pichmond is supposed 
to have been Stephen Thomas, who was followed, within a few 
years, by Peter Johnson, Joshua and Benjamin Albertson, 
Evan Cliapin, and Mark Reeves, father of MarkE. and Jaraee 
E. Reeves. Thomas Stafford, who lived on Middle Fork, built 
several houses in the town. Charles Cartwright came in 
early, and was an extensive house builder. He married a Miss 
Till, whose mother was an early settler. They removed to the 
"VYest. John Hughes, from Pennsylvania, a carpenter, worked 
at his trade in Richmond many years, and built a house on 
Marion street, north of Main, where he died in 1869. David 
Vore, also from Pa., came soon after Hughes; married, and 
settled on Main street, where he early built a brick house. He 
was a carpenter, and worked at his trade until his death, in 
1866. 

Cabinet-makers. — Nathan Morgan, from N. J,,was an early 
27 



370 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

cabinet-maker, and for man}'^ years the principal undertaker in 
the town and vicinity. He conveyed, in his plain Dearborn 
vragon, the remains of rich and poor to their burial places. He 
owned a stone house on Pearl street, which is yet standing-, 
and said to be the only stone building in Richmond. David 
Hook, an early cabinet-maker, carried on business a number of 
years. He was an esteemed citizen, and died many years ago. 
Some of his descendants reside in Richmond. Jonas Gaar 
had a cabinet-shop at the south end of Front street. He is 
now senior partner of the firm of Gaar, Scott & Co., of the 
Gaar Machine Works. 

Abraham Phillips, from Pa., in 1838, established a shop in 
South Pearl street; afterward removed to west side of Main 
street, a few doors east from the corner of Marion, where he 
soon after [1840] erected the building still owned by him, and 
occupied by James Elder as a bookstore. In 1856, he and 
James M. Starr built the hall nearly opposite. Having leased 
bis interest in the hall to Starr, it was called "Starr Hall," 
until January, 1865, when Phillips bought Starr's interest; 
since which it has been known as " Phillips' Hall." 

Tailors. — Among the early mechanics in Richmond was 
Henry Burnham, a tailor, near the junction of Pearl and 
Front streets. Robert Dilhorn, a tailor, early from the East 
to Cincinnati, whence he was " wagoned up " b}' the assist- 
ance of the Friends. He settled on Middle Fork, and soon 
after removed to Richmond. He pursued his business until 
his decease many years ago. Henry Dunham, from Ohio, 
came about the year 1822 or 1823, and carried on the tailor- 
ing business a number of years, and died. John Lowe came 
early; worked a long time as a journeyman tailor, and mar- 
ried a daughter of Levi Johnson. His wife died six or eight 
years ago. He resides in Richmond. 

Isaac E. Jones came from Ohio in 1824. He carried on 
the tailoring business several years. He afterward, in com- 
pany with Warner M. Leeds, his brother-in-law, built a saw- 
mill and other machinery near where Nixon's paper mill is. 
He was also the founder, though on a comparatively small scale, 
of the Spring Foundry, now the " Gaar Machine Works." 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 371 

John II. Ilutton also was one of tlic early tailors; but has 
since been in several different kinds of business, as will be 
seen hereafter. 

Harmon B. Payne came from Ohio Avhen a yonth, and 
worked at tailoring. After he had arrived at manhood he 
married Amy Pryor, and continued to work at his trade for 
several years. He is now a practicing lawyer in Richmond. 
Abraham Earnest, early from Ohio, was a tailor, and followed 
his trade successfully for many years. He married a daugh- 
ter of Daniel Ward, an early settler on the headwaters of 
Middle Fork. He has also been, at different times, in the 
grocery trade, and the hat and cap trade, and is at present a 
broker. Samuel E. Iredell, a tailor, came when a young man, 
and married a Miss Suffrain; was successful in business many 
, years, and engaged in farming in the vicinity of Richmond, 
and died in 1865, leaving a wife and a number of grown 
children. 

Silversmiths, Watch-makers, etc. — John M. Laws came- 
from Philadelphia, and engaged as a journeyman Avatcli- 
maker — name of his employer not remembered. After he^ 
liad worked a while at his trade, he married Joanna, a daugh- 
ter of Joseph P. Plummer, and soon after engaged in mer-_ 
chandising, which he continued many years. Ten or twelve 
years ago, he connected with his business the avooI trade, 
which he continued with his sou, Joseph P., near the depot, 
under the firm of Laws & Son, until his death, in 1868. 
The son died a few weeks before. 

James Ferguson, from New Paris, Ohio, was for many 
yeavs a watch-maker and silversmith in town; married a 
daughter of Jeremy Mansur, and removed to Indianapolis, 
where he has been successful in business. He is extensively 
engaged in the pork trade. 

Charles A. Dickinson, son of Solomon Dickinson, from 
Philadelphia in 1821, after having served his apprenticeship 
with John M. Laws, above noticed, carried on the watch and 
jewelry business until 1867. It is continued by his son, Henry 
C. Dickinson. Robert B., brother of Charles A., is in the 
same business. 



372 HISTORY OF AVAYNE COUNTY. 

CiiAiR-MAKERS. — Elijah 11. Gitlioiis, a native of N". J., came to 
Riclnnoiid from Oliio, in 1833, and carried on tlie chair- 
making business until 1847. After an absence of about a 
year, he returned to Kichmond, and was eight or nine 3'ears 
in tlie grocery trade ; then in the dry goods business in Iowa 
four years; returned to Richmond, and resumed the grocery 
bu^-iness, having also a dry goods store in New Paris, Ohio, 
and another at Mendota, Illinois, nine years. He coninues 
the grocery business at his stoie building, south side of 
Main street, between Marion and Franklin. lie built a frame 
dwelling in 1833 on Fifth street, where now stands tlie elegant 
residence of J. Milton Gaar. He built his store in 1840. 

Griffith D. Githens, a brother of Elijah, also a chair- 
maker, came with or soon after liis brother ; married a daugh- 
ter of John Page, and continued his business until 1869, , 
when he removed to Indianapolis. 

Elislia Fulton was an early chair-maker in pR-lirnond. 
Ilemoved to another -county, and died October 23, 18G6. 

Hatters. — Eli Brown, from N. C., in 1815, was the first, 
and for several years the only hatter in Richmond. The 
reader probably remembers that the vicinity of "Beard's 
Hat Shop" was one of the places in Carolina, from which 
Whitewater was originally peopled. Although the hats the 
settlers brought from that famed shop had been made with a 
view to long service, which indeed the}' had performed, the 
time had come wlien not a few of them needed substitutes. 
And as Friend Brown had learned his trade from Jicard him- 
self, his advent must have been highly gratifying to the 
settlers. Nor is it probable that he had occasion to regret 
his opportune settlement among them. In 1828, he com- 
menced the mercantile business, which he continued several 
years. About the year 1863, he removed to a farm, 2^ miles 
north-west from Richmond, where he died in 1867, aged 
about 75 years. 

Not long after Brown, about 1820, came Caleb Shearon, 
from Maryland, who commenced the same business. He suc- 
ceeded in accumulating a handsome estate to bo divided 
among his children. He died about the year 1850. 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 373 

John SiiffVins, as has been already stated, was an early 
merchant, and afterward went uito the Ijat-niaking business. 
lie is still a dealer in hats and caps on Main street, between 
Pearl and Marion, and is probably the oldest business man in 
the city. lie came in 1818. 

Saddlers and Harness-makers. — Achilles Willianif?, from 
X. C, came to Richmond in the autumn of 1818, and estab- 
lished himself in bnsiness as a saddler and harness-maker, 
the first of that trade in the town. He contiuued the busi- 
ness many N'oars, and engaged in other pursuits. [Sk.] Xa- 
thaniel Lewis, between the years 1820 and 1830, occn[)ied as 
a saddle shop, a long one-story frame building on the south- 
west corner of Main and Marion streets — now Ralph Paige's 
corner. 

John Brad}', a y nng man. from Ohio, a saddler by trade, 
married a Miss Wright, and for some time carried on busi- 
ness in town, and held the ofiice of justice of the peace. lie 
removed to Marion, Indiana, and is still living. Wm. L. 
Brady, his brother, came when a youth, about the year 1826, 
and served an apprenticeship with his brother John ; and has 
since carried on, successfully, the saddle, harness, and trunk 
trade to the present time. He married Susan, daughter of 
David Hoover, and pure ased a residence on Xorth I'earl 
street, wliere he has since resided — about forty years. 

Tanners. — The first tanner}^ in Richmond was established 
in 1818, by John Smith, to give employment to Josei)h Wil- 
mot, an Euglishman, who had early emigrated to Cincinnati, 
and was in search of a location. Robert ^lorrisson established 
another the same year. 

John Finley, whose name appears somewhat conspicuous in 
this history, undertook the management of Smith's tannery 
several years after it was established; but after " running" it 
a single season, he abandoned it. Daniel P. Wiggins, from 
Long Island, X. Y., came to Richmond in 1823. Being a 
tanner, Morrisson employed him to take charge of his tan- 
nery, and, a few years after, admitted him as a partner. 
Walter Legg and John Wilcoxen worked in the yard. Wig- 
gins and his sons afterward purchased the tannety l)uilt by 
Smith, and the Morrisson tannerv was discontinued. The 



374 HISTORY OF AVAYNE COUNTY. 

former is still in possession of the Wiggins family, and lias 
been mnch enlarged and improved. Its present proprietors 
are Stephen E., Charles 0., and John D. Wiggins. They also 
carry on extensively the manufacture of saddles, harness, and 
horse-collars. 

In July, 1857, Job C'urnic and his son Arthur A., com- 
menced a trade in Icatlier and lindings, at old No. 11 South 
J^earl street. The next year they commenced the tanning 
business near the Bush mill, with one vat. In 18G0, Job 
Curmc sold his interest to Isaac D. Dunn; and the store was 
removed to 47 Main street, and the tannery to its present 
location, on Washington and Cliff streets. In 1865, Andrew 
J. Cohman and Dewitt C. Me Whinney became partners — firm 
name, Curme, Dunn & Co., and their store was soon after re- 
moved to its present location, 297 Main street, with John J. 
Harrington as partnei-. This concern is extensively engaged 
in the manufacture of leather and horse-collars. It gives em- 
ployment to about 25 men, nearly half of them at making 
collars, of which 1,500 dozen are made in a year; and there 
are 100 vats in the tanner}'. 

Shoemakers. — Among the early shoemakers in Richmond 
w'as Patrick Justice, elsewhere mentioned as a tavern-keeper. 
Jonathan Moore, quite a young man, from his father's home, 
2J miles south-east of town, as early as 1829, set up a shoe- 
shop on the north-east corner of Main and Fifth streets, 
where the Tremont House now stands, then at the extreme 
border of the town. His wife died a few months after mar- 
riage, and in a few years he married a second. He has con- 
tinued in business without interruption for more than lorty 
years. « 

Owen Edgerton, early from Carolina, worked nniu}' years 
at shoemaking. In 1800, he retired, and transferred his busi- 
ness to his faithful journeyman, a colored man, and is still 
living at the age of about four-score years. Joseph Ogborn, 
also an early shoemaker in liichmond, retired after many 
years, and died in 1869. 

Wagon-makeks. — One of the early mechanics of Richmond, 
and probably the first wagon-maker, was Adam Doyd, who 
came about the year of the incorporation of the town, 1818. 



CITY OF RICUMOND. 375 

He was also a justice of the j)eace. He lived near where 
Pearl Street Methodist Church now stands. 

At a later date came Anthony Fulghum, from IsT. C, who 
had his shop at the north-west corner of Main and Marion 
streets, since known as Gilbert's corner. He lived but a few 
years after he came ; and the business was continued by his 
son Benjamin a number of years. This corner being desired 
for a tavern stand, Fulghum bought a lot on the south-east 
corner of Main and Franklin streets, now the Huntington 
House corner, where he built a frame shop and dwelling, and 
carried on business extensively, especially in the making of 
carriages, many being made for the Friends in a peculiar 
style, not easily described on paper. IsToted as these good 
people are for their adherence to early customs, their " old 
style " carriages have — whether from necessity or other causes 
we know not — been superseded by those of modern construc- 
tion and in common use. Fulghum removed long ago to 
Jackson township, near Cambridge City, where he now resides. 

Samuel Lippincott commenced carriage-making in 1840, 
corner of Main and Franklin streets; building now owned 
by Yaughan Brothers. He removed to Marion street, west 
side, near ]\Iain, and thence to Indianapolis, Avliere he now 
resides. 

Potters. — Potters were among the early mechanics of 
Ivichmond. A pottery was built on South Front street, and 
is said to have be<jn occupied by Eleazar Hiatt, Isaac Bee- 
son, Geo. Bell, a mulatto, and John Scott. The last died of 
cholera in 18-33. Samuel and Edward Foulke, young men, 
settled early in Richmond, and carried on successfully the 
potter's trade, and closed their business. Samuel re-estab- 
lished himself in the business at Indianapolis, and Edward 
returned to Ohio. Samuel returned to Richmond, and re- 
tired from business. There has been no pottery in Rich- 
mond for many years. 

Miscellaneous. — Solomon Dickinson, a tinsmith, from 
Philadelphia, in 1821, settled on Front street, near Ezra Bos- 
well's, where he resided until his death. His shop was on 
Main street, between Marion and Pearl. He was also a dealer 
in stoves. After his death the business was continued by 



376 HISTORY OF "WAYNE COUNTY. 

Edmund Dickinson, a son, at present a gunsmith, near the 
nortli-west corner of Main and Front streets. Solomon, 
another son, is in the grocery trade. Two other sons were 
Charles A. and Robert B. 

Andrew Eeid, a brother of Daniel Reid, w^as the first gun- 
smith. His shop was near Boswell's, a daughter of whom he 
married. He removed from the county many j^ears ago. 

Charles IS^ewman, from Pa., early set up a turning shop on 
Franklin street, north of Main, where he still continues the 
business, having in the meantime improved his establish- 
ment. 

Matthew Rattray, a native of Scotland, and a WTfn-rr, came 
in 1822, and had a shop on South Front street. He married 
a Miss Cheeseman ; lived on Front street, and retired long 
since. They are still living on North Franklin street. 

Lewis Baxter, an early settler, a brick-layer and stone- 
mason, married a Miss Miller, whose ^larents lived a few 
miles north-west of town. He is yet living on his old home- 
stead on Front street. 

Samuel Senix, from Delaware about 1830, with a wife and 
small family, soon purchased in the suburbs of the town, on 
Main street; has been an industrious mechanic, and is still 
living in Richmond. 

Brewer, — The first brewery in Richmond was commenced 
by Ezra Boswell, about the time the town was incorporated. 
His shop, from which be supplied the citizens of the town 
and country with beer and cakes, was on Front street, north 
of Main. It was much frequented by the citizens and by the 
country people who came to town on business — beer being 
then deemed a wholesome beverage. Boswell was a respect- 
able man, and a member of the first board of trustees of the 
town, elected after its incorporation. 

Christian Buhl, direct from Germany, came to Richmond 
as early as 1830, established a brewery on Main street, west 
side of the town, near the National bridge. It was exten- 
sively patronized, not only by the citizens, but by travelers 
and emigrants passing near it. At nearly every raising one 
or more kegs or buckets of Bnhl's beer were drunk. The 
stream of small coin constantly flowing into his money 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 377 

drawer for a few years, made liim a comparatively rich man. 
He boiiglit a large farm a mile aiul a half south-west of the 
town, where he died a few years after. George, one oi his 
sons, now resides on the farm. 

Physicians. — The dates of the settlement of the early phy- 
sicians, or the order in which they settled, it is difficult to as- 
certain. The Historical Sketch of Richmond, by Dr. Plum- 
mer,. written nearly a quarter of a century ago, is deemed 
more relial)le authority than the recollections of persons at 
this late period. 

Dr. Thomas Carroll is mentioned hy Dr. P. as the first 
physician in Richmond. He came in 1819, and in 1823 re- 
moved to Cincinnati, where he was many years in practice, 
and where he died in March, 1871. A Dr. Cushman, from 
Fort "Wayne, is said to have come in 1820. He built a dis- 
tillery in the south part of the town on the side of the hill on 
Front street, near a spring. In this enterprise he was unsuc- 
cessful, as was also his successor, Dr. Warner, into whose hands 
it passed. He suffered it to go down ; and it was never re- 
vived. Dr. Cushman returned to Fort Wayne, where he was 
an associate judge. Dr. Ithamar "Warner came to Richmond 
about the year 1820, and was for many years the piincipal 
practicing physician in this town and Wayne township. [Sk.] 
Dr. Wm. Pngh studied medicine and commenced practice in 
Richmond, the year not a>certained. He removed to Center- 
viile about the 3'ear 1824, Avhere he soon after died. Dr. 
James R. Mendenhall, of Carolina origin, commenced prac- 
tice in 1822, and retired in 1830. [Sk.] A Dr. Griffith arrived 
soon after Dr. Warner. He was somewhat advanced in ao:e 
and practice. He chose a location on Front street. After a 
brief practice here, he removed to the W^est. The vacancy 
made by his removal was filled by Dr. John T. Plummer, only 
son of Joseph P. Plummer. [Sk.] Wm. B. Sn.ith, from the 
East, studied medicine with Dr. "W^arner; nuirried Alice 
Irwin, and settled on North Pearl street. He practiced 
many years with success, and died in middle life. Dr. Sam- 
uel Nixon came to Richmond about the year 1830; remained 
in town a number of years, and had a large practice; after 



378 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

which he settled on a farm in the vicinity. lie afterward 
removed west, and died a few years after. 

Lawyers. — When the first law^^er settled in liichmond can 
not, perhaps, be now ascertained. Dr. Pluramer mentions 

" one Hardy, who boarded at Ephraim Lacey's tavern," 

and soon left for want of business. This must have been af- 
ter 1824, as in that year there was no lawyer in Richmond. 
John B. Chapman, from Ya., was advertised in the Public 
Ledger in 1826, as attorney and counselor at law. 

John D. Vaughan was here before 1828, and died of cholera 
in 1833. Two of his sons, Edward and John, are at present, 
and have been for many years, hardware merchants, corner of 
Main and Eranklin streets. Andrew, another sou, is in the 
livery business. A daughter is the wife of Samuel Lippincott, 
many years a carriage maker in Richmond, lately removed to 
Indianapolis. Widow Vaughan, now widow of the late 
Henry Hoover, resides in the city. 

John W. Green was an earl}^ lawyer in Richmond, and is 
still remembered by the oldest citizens. He has since resided, 
and probably still resides, in New York. 

William A. Bickle, from Ya., came with his father to Cen- 
terville, in 1836, and the same year to Richmond, where he en- 
gaged as clerk in the store of Daniel Reid. He soon after 
commenced the stud}- of law, and was admitted to practice in 
Feb., 1840. He settled in Richmond, where he has continued 
in the successful practice of his profession until the present 
time. 

Jesse P. Siddall, son of Atticus Siddall, an early merchant, 
before noticed, was born in Richmond, Oct. 20, 1821. In 1842 
he was admitted, and commenced the practice of law in Madi- 
son Co. ; whence, after about two years, he removed to Center- 
ville, where he formed a partnership with John S. Kewman, 
which continued about ten years, during the last two of which 
Mr. Siddall resided in Richmond, where he is still engaged in 
his profession. 

James Perry, although the oldest practicing attorney, was 
not among the earliest in Richmond. [Sk.] 



CITY OF EICHMOND. 379 

Manufactures and Trade of Richmond. 

As a manufacturing town, Richmond has long maintained a 
hio-h rank amonff the cities of the west. In the amount and 
variet}' of its manufactures, in proportion to its population, it is 
perhaps unsurjiassed in any western city. The products of 
its capital and lahor find sale in many of the western and 
south-western states. Our limited space forbids a minute de- 
scription of these establishments; some of them can scarcely 
receive the briefest notice. We commence with the 

Gaati Machixe Works.— This extensive establishment, 
now devoted to the manufacture of steam and horse power 
thresliing machines, portable and stationary engines, circu- 
lar and mulay saw-mills, and other works of a similar charac- 
ter, was started in 1836, in a frame building, which stands on 
the corner of High street and AVashington avenue, whither it 
was removed in 1856 to make room for the machine shop. Its 
first proprietor was Isaac E. Jones, who used the building prin- 
cipally for a stove foundry. In 1839, it passed into the hands 
of Jesse M. and John II. Ilntton, and in 1841 was built the 
first thresher (a chati'-piler) ever made in Indiana. In 1849, the 
Huttons sold their establishment to Jonas Gaar and his sons, 
Abraham and John M. Gaar, and his son-in-law, Wm. G, 
Scott, Avho continued the business under the firm of A. Gaar 
& Co., until April 1, 1870, just twenty-one years, during 
Avhich time it grew to its present huge proprotions. Its major- 
ity was celebrated at the latter date, when the firm assumed 
the name of Gaar, Scott & Co., the same proprietors being still 
the exclusive holders of the capital stock of the concern, 
amounting to $400,000. The purchase money paid by A. Gaar 
k Co. to the Huttons is said to have been $9,000. From this 
may be seen the vast extension of the business under the man- 
agement of the present proprietors. 

The machine shop, built in 1856, was burned down, January 
31, 1858, hut was immediately rebuilt; and other buildings 
have from time to time been added. The establishment uses four 
or five acres for its buildings and grounds ; has used 400,000 
feet of lumber in a year, melted four tons of pig-iron in its 
foundry per day, and made up 100 tons of boiler iron aunu- 



880 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

ally. The floor room in the shops and warehouses is 1,062,309 
square feet — about two and one-tliird acres. The number of 
hands employed averas^es over 200 ; and the products are be- 
tween $350,000 and 8400,000 per annum. 

Robinson Machine AVorks. — This establishment was founded 
in 1842, by Francis W. Robinson, on the corner of Main and 
Washington streets. It was for a time confined to the making 
of threshing machines of the " Chaff-Piler " and " Traveler" 
patterns. The former was a horse-power machine, and simply 
threshed the wheat ; the latter took the wheat in the shock, 
threshed and separated it, and delivered the wheat in a box, 
leaving: the straw on the o-round. The value of the machines 
turned out the first year did not, as is believed, exceed in value 
86,000. In 1858, Mr. Robinson obtained a patent for a thresh- 
ing machine, which has been improved from time to time, until 
the "Gold Medal Thresher and Separator" is supposed to be 
equal to any in the United States. In or about the year 1847, he 
commenced the making of steam engines and saw-mills. In 
1862, Jonas W. Yeo became sole proprietor, and was joined in 
1868 by Robert H. Shoemaker; since which time the business 
has been conducted under the firm of Yeo & Slioemaker. 
From a comparatively small beginning, tliese works have risen 
to a hifi^h rank among the manufactories of its class in the 
Btate. Its grounds on the corner having become too circum- 
scribed for its increasing business, room was obtained for the 
boiler shop on the east side of Washington street, and for the 
warehouse on the south side of Main. Its manufactures are 
horse-power and steam threshers and separators, portable and 
stationary engines, portable saw-mills, and castings of every 
description. The average number of workmen employed is 
between seventy and eighty ; and the amount of sales has been 
between $125,000 and §150,000 annually. In 1866, a fire oc- 
curred in the establishment which destroyed property to a 
considerable amount, the loss being mostly covered by insur- 
ance. 

Quaker City Works. — These works were commenced by 
Isaac Ringe, in 1856, soon after the completion of tlie National 
bridge, (which had been built under his superintendence,) for 
the manufacture of stationary engines, and all kinds of job 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 381 

work. The next year Isaac Ringe & Co. ( Brady havino; 

become a partner,) built the present three-story brick shop and 
foundry, when the concern t'ok the name of the '■^American 
Machine TFor/iS." lu 1860, Ringe sold his interest to Brady ; 
and the business was conducted by Brady & Son. Brady soon 
after sold one-third of liis interest to J. M. Aikin, and the same 
year another third to J. J. ]{ussell. In 1862, Brady sold his 
remaining interest to Wni. Sinex; and soon after Russell sold 
his to John Roberts, the name of the firm, J. M. Aikin & Co. 
still remaining unchanged. In 1865, Samuel Sinex became 
sole proprietor, and, in 1867, sold to A. !N". Hadley and G. 
Morrow, (iirm, A. K. Iladley & Co.) Among the articles man- 
ufactured at these works are stationary and portable engines, 
of all sizes, flouring-mill machinery, circular saw-mills, tur- 
bine water wheels, circular saws for firewood, shingle machines, 
Doan's ditching machines, tile-mills for making tile, Farqnbar 
& Doan's feed boilers, sugar-mills, and all kinds of builders' 
work. About thirty men have been employed, and the prod- 
ucts have been about §100,000 in a year. 

Union Machine Works. — These works, for the manufacture 
of portable and stationary engines and castings generally, 
were established in 1800, hy White & Bargion. In 1862, they 
pa^^sed into the hands of Edgar M. Baylies, Joseph Marchant, 
and Gustavus A. Baylies. In 1864, ^Marchant sold his interest 
to G. A. Baylies, and the firm took the name of Baylies & Co. 
In 1866, the firm was change,d to Baylies, Vaughan & Co., the 
partners being E. M., G, A., and Joseph M. Baylies, and An- 
drew F. Vaughan. In 1868, Vaughan retired, and the firm 
was clianged to J. ]\[. Baylies & Co. In 1869, Isaac D. Dunn 
came in under the firm name of Baylies, Dunn & Co. In 1870, 
the name of the firm was again changed to Baylies, Vaughan 
& Co. The average number of men heretofore employed is 
35; and the value of products annually sold, about $60,000. 
These works arc on the corner of Seventh and Pool streets, 
north of the railroad depot. 

Richmond Mill Works. — These works were established 
November, 1859, by Ellis Xordyke and his son, Addison H. 
Nordyke, at the corner of Green and Walnut streets. In 1866, 
they removed to their place of business, in the north-west part 



382 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

of the city, on Green street, when Daniel W. Marmon became 
a partner, and the compan}' took the name of Nordyke, Mar- 
mon & Co. They have from time to time added to the num- 
ber of articles manufactured and furnished, among whicli are 
grinding and bolting mills, corn and feed mills, burr mill- 
stones, bolting cloths, smut machines, &c. Their specialty is 
the manufacture of complete portable flour mills, and bolts for 
grinding and bolting the several kinds of grain. All that 
pertains to a first rate flouring mill, except the castings, is 
made at this establishment. From 20 to 30 hands are em- 
ployed ; and the annual products amount in value to about 
$65,000. 

The proprietors have also, at the same place, a custom flour- 
ing mill, five stories high, propelled by the same water power. 
This mill was built in 1867, and is run by H. C. Wright k Co. 
The grinding is done in the fourth story, which is on a level 
with the street on the east side. The stones are turned by a 
perpendicular shaft. [Since the above was written, in conse- 
quence of the death of Ellis Kordyke, a change in the proprie- 
torship has occurred.] 

Stove Foundry. — In 1865, C. P. Peterson and E. J. King 
established a foundry for the manufacture of stoves, hollow- 
w^are, and castings generally. Their capital and trade have 
steadily increased, until their annual products amount to 
$25,000 or $30,000 ; and their wares are sold in several states. 
Castings for the school desk manufacturers are made at this 
foundry. 

RicuMOND School Furniture Works. — John P. Allen and 
George H. Grant associated, in 1865, under the firm of 
Allen & Grant, for the manufacture of Allen's patent self- 
supporting school desks. In 1868, Mr. Allen died ; and soon 
after, Mr. Grant took as a partner, Joseph Marchant, who, in 
April, 1869, sold his interest to Joshua Nickerson and Wm. 
Wooton, when the company took its present name, George 
II. Grant & Co. In December, 1869, Turner W. Ilaynes 
bought the interest of Mr. Wooton ; and in January, 1870, 
A. W. Kempleman became a partner. The business was 
commenced in South Sixth street. The increased demand 
for the Richmond school furniture required the enlargement 



CITY OF EICIIMOND. 383 

of their works ; and new buildino;s were erected on the corner 
of ^inth and ISToble streets. Both the quantity and variety 
of furniture manufactured has iucreased. Tliere are here 
made school desks and seats of various styles and sizes, reci- 
tation seats, settees for halls and depots, counters on iron 
frames, counting-liouse desks, church pews, library and cab- 
inet cases, gymnastic apparatus, etc. The quantity of lumber 
annually used by these works is about 300,000 feet. The 
number of hands employed is about 15, and the value of 
products sold about $40,000 a year. 

Sash, Door, and Blind and School Furniture Manufac- 
tory. — In 1856, Hollopater & Barnard commenced the manu- 
facture of doors, sash, and blinds, at the corner of Sixth and 
Walnut streets; and in 1859 sold the establishment to Ezra 
Smith, James Smith, and Asa S. Smith. The business has 
since been conducted under the iirm of Ezra Smith & Co., 
without change of partnership, except by the retirement of 
Asa S. Smith, six months after it was formed. The present 
proprietors have added to their machine}^ a planing mill, and 
to their manufactures the various articles of school furniiure, 
and all kinds ofjoiners' work for buildings. They employ 
about 20 hands, and sell of their products annually to the 
value of about $40,000. 

Burial Case and Casket Manufactory. — The manufacture 
of sash, doors, and blinds was commenced about the year 
1854, by Smith & Hyde, corner of Sixth and Market streets. 
The establishment passed successively into the hands of the 
following firms : Hasecoster & Rowten, (who removed it to 
Fort Wayne avenue,) Hasecoster & Kane, and Hasecoster & 
Stephens. In February, 1867, Jesse M. Ilutton, George 
Hasecoster, Samuel S. Gause, and Wm. P. Ilutton became 
proprietors, under the Iirm name of J. M. Ilutton & Co. In 
January, 1868, they removed to their new building on the 
south-west corner of Ninth and Noble streets. In June, 1869, 
George Sherman and Matthew H. Dill were admitted as part- 
ners; and the company was incorporated under the general 
law of the legislature, -without change of name. In 1869, 
the manufacture of wooden burial cases and caskets was added 
to their business, and has already become quite extensive. 



384 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Their new sliop was a tliree-story brick building, 105 by 40 
feet. The new branch of business requiring an increase of 
room, a uew brick l)uikling, 100 by 25 feet, three stories high, 
was erected on the north-east corner of Noble and ISTinth 
streets, which has since been enlarged by an addition of equal 
dimensions. Orders for these cases are received from the 
western and south-western states. In the two branches of 
this establishment^ about 40 persons are employed ; nearly 
700,000 feet of lumber are consumed; and between $40,000 
and $50,000 in value of products are sold in a year. 
' ^'Bince the foregoing was written, the lirst mentioned of 
these buildings — that inwliich the manufacturing was chiefly 
done — with its macliinory and other contents, was destroyed 
by fire, October 4, ]870. In fifty-five days, a new three-story 
brick building was erected on the same spot, and in success- 
ful operation. The loss was estimated at $22,000, and no 
portion covered by insurance. The business is now confined 
to the burial case and casket manufacture, which has been 
greatly increased. About 50 persons are noAv employed, and 
the amount of sales has been augmented in a much greater 
proportion. 

ExMPiRE Steel Plow Factory. — This business was com- 
menced in 1832 by Solomon and David S. Ilorney, by whom 
it was continued for about eight years, and thereafter by 
Solomon Ilorney until about the year 1848, when he was 
again joined by his former partner, and the business was car- 
ried on in the name of S. & 1). S. Ilorney. In 1850, S. Ilorney 
again assumed the sole proprietorship. In 1852, George 
McCullough became a partner; and in 1853, Elwood Patter- 
son — firm, S. Ilorney & Co., which has continued, to the 
present time. Tliis has become one of the more important 
manufacturing establishments of the city. At a not very re- 
mote period, it turned out about 500 plows annually. Its 
products have risen to upward of 5,000 a year. Cultivators 
and other agricultural implements also are to some extent 
manufactured. About 30 persons are employed, and the value 
c^ products annually sold is about $70,000. 

liiciiMOND Plow Works. — In 18(35, the manufacturing of 
steel jdows was commenced by Bratz, Meir & Co., 304, 300, 



CITY OF RICIIMO^'D. 385 

398 Main street. In 18G7, the firm was changed to Bratz, 
Perry & Co., and in 8G9 to Oran Perry. The molds, shares, 
and all other parts of the plows coming in contact with the 
soil, are made of German and cast steel, and polished on 
emery belt. The number of plows made at these works the 
first year was 150 ; the last year about 2,500. They are sold 
in the states' of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, Missouri, 
Kentucky, and Tennessee, and at prices from $10 to $40. 

Carriage Manufactories. — Peter Crocker, the proprietor 
of an establishment of this kind on Main street, commenced 
business in this city as a blacksm th in 1837. In 1845, he 
commenced the wagon-making business. Since 1852, he has 
confined himself to the manufacturing of fine carriages, 
which, for quality of material, for neatness and durability, 
are scarcely surpassed by those of any similar establishment 
in the state. The value of the products of this manufactory 
has been from §12,000 to $15,000 annually. 

Stephen S. Strattan,a native of Richmond, commenced car- 
riage-making in 1859, on Fort Wayne avenue, where he still 
continues the business. He wrought first at repairing and 
the making of peddlers' wagons. He has gradually enlarged 
his shop and extended his business, until it has become a 
first-class establishment. Its products have reached the 
amount of about $14,000 a year. 

Hue, Spoke, and Felloe Manufactory. — This business was 
commenced about the year 1865, by Hare, Test & Co., who 
run it r.bout three years, and Lemon, Test & Co. about one 
year. It next passed to Dr. J. R. Mendenhall, who, about 
six months after, sold to Matthews & Brother, [Edward R. 
and Wm. J^. Matthews,] who, in 1871, changed their business 
to the manufacture of 'patent carriage loheels. This establish- 
ment is on the corner of Eighth and ^SToble streets. 

Richmond Malleable Iron Works. — These works were 
established during the last year, [1871,] and are already in suc- 
cessful operation. Its proprietors are E. D. Palmer and H. 
H. Fetta. They make all kinds of malleable iron cast- 
ings; also wagon, carriage,, plow, and agricultural castings. 
The proprietors contemplate nuiking large additions to their 
28 



386 HISTORY OF "WAYNE COUNTY. 

works. The estimated cost of the establishment, when, com- 
pleted, will be about $30,000. 

Cutlery Manufactory. — This establishment is one mile 
north of the city near the Ilillsboro' turnpike. The build- 
ings were erected in 1865, by Joseph Comer and Clarkson 
Moore. Though the variety of the articles here manufac- 
tured is not great, the quality is said to be excellent. Pocket- 
knives and table knives and farks are made a specialty. The 
works are nowin^the hands of a stock company, the mem- 
bers of which are Joseph Comer, John Eoberts, A. P. Stan- 
ton, and James Comer. 

Woolen Manufacture. — Jesse Clark, from ISTorth Carolina, 
who had settled about 2 miles north of Richmond, and built 
there a fulling-mill, the first in the county, removed his ma- 
chinery to a building which he had erected at or near the 
present site of the Green street flou ring-mill. He leased the 
works to Warner M. Leeds and Samuel Test, who added 
machinery for carding, spinning, and weaving. In 1825, they 
sokl the lease for the unexpired term to Levinus King and 
his brothers, Thomas W. and Dean, In 1834, Levinus Kiug 
became the sole proprietor, and continued such until 1837. 
A company was then formed, styled ^'■Richmond Trading and 
Manufacturing Company" composed of Levinus King, pro- 
prietor of the woolen factory, Warner M. Leeds and Isaac E. 
Jones, owners of the paper mill, and James R. Mendenhall, 
who had become the owner of the Cox grist-mill. This com- 
pany continued until 1843, when the property passed out of 
their hands. Mr. Kiug then hired the establishment, and, 
after having run it for five or six years, bought it in 1848, 
and continued the business until 1853. It was afterward 
converted into a flax-dressing mill. 

!^ fin or about the year 1835, Wm. Bancroft started a woolen 
factory half a mile below town, where Mering's grist-mill 
now is. He continued the manufacturing business about 
three years. It then passed into the hands of Caleb Shrieve, 
who rented it a year to Levinus King, and a year to Christian 
Buhl, when it was discontinued. 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 387 

EiCHMOND Woolen Mills. — The establishment of these 
mills in 1865, by Richard Jackson and EHas IT. Swaync, on 
the site of the old grist-mill of Jeremiah Cox, and subsequently 
of the flouring-mill of Basil Brightwell, has been mentioned. 
About six months after, Henry C. Dunn became a partner; 
after which time the name of the firm, Jackson, Swayne & 
Dunn, has remained without change. The building was much 
enlarged, and the machinery greatly extended and improved, 
until it was surpassed by few manufactories of the kind in the 
West. The building was of wood, five stories high. The 
goods made at these mills consisted chiefl}^ of cassimeres, jeans, 
satinets, blankets, and yarns, which were considered equal in 
quality to similar goods made in eastern mills. They re- 
ceived complimentary notices at the expositions in Chicago and 
Cincinnati ; and at the latter, premiums were received on sati- 
nets, flannels, and yarn. These mills gave employment to 
about 75 hands; consumed annually about 150,000 pounds of 
wool, costing about 45 cents a pound ; and turned out manu- 
factured products yearly to the value of $200,000. They con- 
tained three sets of carding mitchines, four jacks, (960 spindles,) 
and twenty-nine looms; and had the capacity to produce 4,500 
yards of different kinds of cloth, and 1,000 pounds of yarn per 
M^eek. About a year ago, and since the above sketch was 
prepared, these mills, with their contents, were destroyed by 
fire. A small proportion of the loss was covered by insurance. 

Mount Yernon Woolen Mill. — This mill is on the White- 
water, about a mile and a half below the cit3^ It was estab- 
lished in 1855, by Alpheus Test. It was destroyed by fire in 
1857, and rebuilt by Alpheus Test and Abijah Moftitt. A year 
or two later, the firm was changed to A. Test & Co. In 1865, 
William, Rufus, and Oliver, sons of Alpheus Test, became pro- 
prietors, and under the firm of Test & Brothers, have conducted 
the concern until the present time. In 1866, it wag again 
burned down, the proprietors suftering a loss of !!?9,000, and 
was immediately rebuilt. Although various kinds of cloth 
are made to some extent, it is now chiefly employed in the 
manufacture of stocking yarn of all kinds for machine and 
hand knitting. It gives employment to about fifteen hands, 
and its products amount to about $25,000 or $30,000 a year. 



388 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Fleec^ Dale Woolen Factory. — This manufactory was es- 
tablished by Benjamin Ilibbard in 1825, on the site of a saw- 
mill previously owned by Hawkins. (?) It was in or about the 
year 1849 bought of Hibbard by Benjamin Bond and Alpheus 
Test, and conducted by them for several years; next by Sam- 
uel Nixon and Ezekiel Aikin until 1865 ; and since, by Eze- 
kiel Aikin and Samuel Porter, [E. Aikin & Co.,] to the present 
time. Custom work, chiefly, is done at this establishment. Its 
fabrics are blankets, flannels, satinets, jeans, and stocking yarn, 
which are sold, or exchanged for wool, at the manufactory. It is 
situated about a mile and a half above the city, on Whitewater. 

Richmond Knitting Factory. — Among the manufacturing 
establishments of Richmond worthy of note, is the stocking 
manufactory of John H. Hutton. It was established on Main 
street, near Seventh, in 1867, when only a single Lamb knitting 
machine was used. It was removed, in 1868, to Fifth street. 
The number of machines now employed is eighteen, each op- 
erated by a female; turning out, in the aggregate, about 150 
dozen pairs of woolen socks per week. Some of the more ex- 
perienced girls knit three dozen, and in a few instances as 
many as three and a half dozen pairs in a day. A large num- 
ber of women are employed at their homes, in putting on the 
tops and closing up the heels. Orders for these goods have 
been received from New York and Philadelphia ; but chiefly 
from Chicago. Also, tine articles of ladies and children's 
hose are manufactured here. Goods to the value of about 
125,000 a year are turned out by the establishment. 

A Cotton Factory was built by Charles W. Starr, about the 
year 1831, just above the AV^illiamsburg turnpike bridge. He run 
it several years, and sold the property to Job Swain, who sold 
the machinery, and converted the building into n jjcg factory. 
It passed to Isaac E. Jones, who changed it to a silk factory, 
which was changed to a (/n6^/?(^7^, called the "Spring Mill." 
This was bought several years after by Joseph P. Laws, who 
converted it into a tannery, which also has been discontinued. 

Richmond Loom Works.— These works were established by 

Thomas G. Thompson, in 1862. In June, 1866, Ballard 

became a partner, and in 1869, Wm. H. Vandeman ; (tirra, 
Thompson, Ballard, & Co.) Ballard retired the same year; 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 389 

since which time, the business has been carried on by Thomp- 
son & Vandeman. Two diflerent looms are made at these 
works: the Flying Shuttle Hand Loom, and the Self- Acting 
Hand Loom. Improvements in these looms were patented in 
Sept., 1867. More than 1,200 of them have been made and 
put into operation. One of these looms may serve a number 
of families. They are used for weaving cassimeres, jeans, sati- 
nets, linsey, flannel, wool and rag carpets, &c. This firm has 
added to their business the manufacture of School Furnitare, 
embracing the various articles necessary for the school-room. 

Paper Mills. — The Public Ledger, in 1827, contained the 
following announcement: "Mr. Smith is progressing finely 
with his paper-mill ; and we hope in the fall to issue the Ledger 
on a sheet manufactured at Richmond." The death of the 
proprietor in the spring of 1828, disappointed the hope of the 
editor. In 1830, however, a paper mill was put in operation 
by Leeds & Jones, under the superintendence of John Easton. 
This mill afterward was a part of the property of the Rich- 
mond Manufacturing and Trading Company, elsewhere- no- 
ticed. It afterward came into the possession of the Nixon 
Brothers ; and the establishment has been owned chiefly by. 
that famil}^ to the present time. About a year ago, the mill 
was destroyed by fire, and a new one has been erected in its 
place. The Nixons have also, near the same spot, a mill for 
the manufacture of paper flour sacks and other articles. 

A fayer mill was also built in 1853, by Timothy Thistle- 
thwaite, Miles J. Shinn, and Joseph C. Ratlifl', and operated for 
a time by the company, and afterward by Thistlethwaite, who 
discontinued the paper mill, and added the power to that of 
his grist-mill, [now Bush's mill,] which has a fall of 47 feet. 

Richmond Linseed Oil Mill was started in 1852, by Burson 
& Evans, [D. S. Burson and J. P. Evans.] It had a capacity 
to manufacture, yearly, about 50,000 bushels of flaxseed. It 
was destroyed by tire, Feb. 7, 1864, at a loss of about ^75,000. 
It Avas replaced by a three-story brick building, 80 by 60 feet, 
and is owned and run b}' J. W. Burson k Co., [J. AV. and E. T. 
Burson,] and has a capacity of 80,000 bushels of seed a year. 
It is one of the best arrans^ed and best constructed mills of 



390 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

the kind in the West. This mill stands on the north side of 
East Fork, on the Newport turnpike. 

Flouring Mills. — Thomas Newman, about the year 1825, 
built a grist-mill on West Fork, near Kichmond. About the 
year 1853, it was bought of Newman's heirs by Thomas Hunt 
& Co. It has since been owned by Timothy Thistlethwaite, 
and is now the property of Davis Bush, of Quincy, 111., who 
has recently remodeled, enlarged, and improved it. It is now 
considered equal to any mill in the county, and manufactures, 
it is said, about 1,000 barrels a week. It is propelled both by 
steam and water power. 

Benjamin and Ezra Hill own a large flouring mill half a 
mile north of the city. Mering's mill stands about half a 
mile below the National bridge. The Nordyke mill, in the 
city, now run by II. C. Wright & Co., has been mentioned. 
There is also a steam grist-mill on Sixth street, near the depot. 

Wliolesale Trade. 

Groceries. — Forkner«& Elmer, [James Forkner and Charles 
N. Elmer,] opened a wholesale grocery store at 149 Fifth 
street and 3 Noble street, in September, 1865. Andrew F. 
Scott became a partuer, in October, 1867; since wdiich time 
the business has been conducted by Forkner, Scott & Elmer. 
Average annual sales for several years, ending in 1870, were 
about $300,000. 

Howard & Grubbs, [John R. Howard and John W. Grubbs,] 
commenced business as wholesale grocers, in 1860. In 1867, 
Elijah K. Harvey was admitted as a partner ; and under the firm 
name of Howard, Grubbs & Co., the business was continued 
until the autumn of 1871, when Mr. Grubbs retired. The 
business is still continued by the other members of the firm, 
at 204 and 206 Fort Wayne avenue. Sales the first year, 
$90,000; the last year, [ending in 1870,] about $400,000. 

Mr. Grubbs has formed a new partnership, and built a new 
brick store on Noble street, opposite the railroad depot. 

Dry Goods. — Spencer, Crocker & Co. [Wm. F. Spencer, Al- 

vin E. Crocker, and Haines,] established a wholesale dry 

ffoods store in 1806. Crocker retired in 1867. The name of the 
present firm is, and for several years has been, W. F. Spencer 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 391 

& Brother. [Wm. F. and John Spencer.] Sales have for sev- 
eral years averaged about §150,000. Store, Fifth street, near 
Xoble. 

Thomas B. Vanaernam and Lorenzo Williams commenced, 
in 1866, a wholesale trade in boots and shoes, in connection 
with that branch of the dry goods trade usually termed ''■No- 
tions," to which the business is now chiefly confined. In 1868, 
Williams retired from the coneerii ; and Mr. Vanaernam con- 
tinues sole proprietor. The business, which has been steadily 
increasing, amounted, in 1870, to about §60,000 or §70,000 a 
year. 

Drugs and Medicines. — Awdiolesale drug store was opened 
in 1868, by Plummer & Morrisson, [Jonathan W. Plummer 
and liobert, son of James L. Morrisson,] ISTo. 193 Fort Wayne 
avenue, having a Fifth street front of double width. Though 
a comparatively new establishment, its sales have attained an 
amount of from $100,000 to §125,000 a year. 

QuEENswARE AND GLASSWARE. — In 1863, T. F. Bailcy & Co. 
[Thomas F. Bailey, Wm. P. RatlifF, and Wm. Bailey,] com- 
menced the crockery [queensware] and glassware trade. They 
continued their wholesale business at No. 147 Fifth street, 
Reid's block, and their retail store on Main street, until 1871. 
Their sales the first year amounted to about §9,000 ; the last, 
ending in 1870, §99,000. They discontinued business in Rich- 
mond in 1871. 

Iron Stores. — William W. Foulke, in 1854, succeeded Mor- 
decai Parry, at his present stand, on Koble street, in the iron 
and heavy hardware trade; the stock consisting of bar, band, 
hoop, and sheet-iron, nails, anvils, and such articles generally 
as are wanted by blacksmiths, mill builders, and others — 
which are sold at wholesale and retail. Mr. Foulke has con- 
tinued in the business till the present time, having, however, 
been in the meantime associated with many partners, under the 
several firms of Foulke & Fish, Foulke & Shoemaker, Foulke, 
Shoemaker & Cofiin, Foulke & Co., the partner being Timothy 
Thistlethwaite. The latter has retired. 

Ilowell Grave, in 1861, established a similar store, near that 
of Wm. Foulke, which is still continued. 

Woolen Machinery, &c.— Adams & Hadley, [J. Adams and 



392 HISTORY OF wayne county. 

Will. L. Iladley,] have recently established themselves as deal- 
ers in woolen machiner\', dyestuffs, cotton warps, beltins^ and 
factory suj-plies of all kinds. Their store is at Xo. 15 Noble 
street, opposite the railroad depot. 

Banks. 

State Eank of Indiana. — This bank was chartered in 1833. 
Indiana Avas then comparatively a new state, with no rail- 
roads, and fow^ turnpikes or other public improvements, 
no cities or large towns. There Avas but little cajiital in the 
state. Few men had accumulated wealth — very few wIjo did 
not find it necessary to labor for their daily bread. The state 
took one-half of the stock of the bank, and borrowed the 
money on its bonds in IsTew York to pay it, and at the same 
time borrowed enough to aid the subscribers, by loan, in pay- 
ing their stock. Ten branches were organized, wdiich did all 
the business with the public, the state bank being mereh^ an 
office to which the branches reported. The stock was all 
taken by honorable and excellent men. The control always 
remained in such bands; and the business was managed wdth 
prudence and success. The bank did much to increase the 
resources and wealth of the country, and proved a great 
benefit to the community, as well as profitable to the stock- 
holders. At its close it paid off the entire debt created by 
the state to start it, and left a surplus of several millions of 
dollars, which was wisely appropriated b}' its charter to the 
school fund of the state, and made the basis of the munificent 
fund by which free schools are supported in every school dis- 
trict. The great success of this bank Avas dne to the high 
character and ability of its officers and directors. Few 
chans^es occurred in its manasfers durins: its existence. 

The Branch at Eichmond commenced business on the 1st 
of December, 1834. The stock was made up in Richmond 
and in Wayne and adjoining counties, principally in small 
sums, and difi'used among all classes of the community. Most 
of its directors were residents of Richmond ; but the counties 
of Fayette, Union, Henry, and Randolph were generally rep- 
resented in the board. Its loans Avcre made in small sums 
through all these counties, and did much to develop the re- 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 393 

sources of the countr}', and to aid those who were struggling 
for a competency. Meetings of the board Avere held weekly; 
and all notes were passed upon by them. The bank was 
gcuci-ally croAvded on "discount da}'" with applicants for 
loans; and the otKcers frequently had to remain at the bank- 
ing room until late at night to "enter up," and be prepared 
to pay out, next day, the proceeds of notes discounted. 

Kobert Morrisson was the largest stockholder. He had 
been a prosperous business man, and was comparatively 
wealthy. lie now retired from business, and being one of the 
directors of the state bank, was rarely absent from the 
quarterly meetings of its board; and by his well-known in- 
tegrity, decided character, and good sense, did much to form 
the character of the state bank. Achilles AVilliams was the 
first president of the Richmond branch. He was an old cit- 
izen, upright, deservedly popular, and universally esteemed, 
and aided in o-ivino- character to the new bank. He served a 
year or two, and resigned to take a place in the state senate. 

Albert C. Blanchard succeeded Mr. Williams as president 
of the bank until the expiration of its charter — about 23 
years. At the time of his election he was a young merchant, 
who had resided a few years in Richmond. He was possessed 
of excellent business habits and an unblemished character. 
His means were not large, yet with a high sense of honor and 
with good management, he never allowed a debt to run over- 
due. He had by great industry built up a large trade in 
Wayne and the neighboring counties. Attending to the de- 
tails of every branch of his business, he grew in prosperity, 
and by his correct deportment gained the respect of the com- 
munity. 

For several years Mr. Blanchard gave the bank only par- 
tial attention : but as his stock and his interest in it increased, 
he gave it more time, nntil he closed his mercantile business, 
and gave the bank his undivided attention. Under his ad- 
ministration the bank increased rapidly in business and prof- 
its. It sometimes passed through the ordeal of panics and 
suspensions, but always came out unharmed; and its presi- 
dent came to be ree:arded as one of the most successful finan- 
ciers in the West. 



394 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Elijah Coffin was the first and only cashier of this hank. 
He opened its doors in 1834, and closed them in 1859. His 
well-known signature appeared on all its notes. He had 
been for several years engaged in mercantile business at 
Milton, and was temporarily residing at Cincinnati when he 
was elected cashier. lie was a leading member of the society 
of Friends, widely known and highly respected; aud his 
genial nature and pleasant address contributed much to the 
popularity of the institution. Prudent and cautious, he ven- 
tured little himself, and always advised a safe, conservative 
policy. Ever looking to the interests of the stockholders, he 
watched carefully the expenditures of the bank, and the solv- 
ency and promptitude of its paper. He died in 1862, three 
years after the expiration of its charter. 

The building at present occupied by the Richmond National 
Bank Avas erected for the old state bank in 1834. Silver was 
then used as a legal tender; and the original stock was paid 
in silver coin, which, before the vault was completed, was 
kept in several large kegs and boxes, and watched day and 
night by several prominent citizens, in turn, in a store-room 
in the village. The bank notes were redeemed in silver coin. 
In the course of business money was frequently conveyed in 
large farm-wagons to and from Cincinnati, a journey requiring 
three or four days. Some of the wagoners who conveyed 
such loads are still living, and relate an amusing experience 
in guarding against the difficulties and dangers of the trip. 

The speculation in public lands about the year 1836 
brought many land-buj'ers, on horseback, through Eichmond, 
and as coin only Avas taken at the land-offices, the horses were 
often fatigued and their backs made sore by the heavily- 
loaded saddle-bags. Many stopped, and exchanged their 
money at the bank for paper, rather running the risk of buy- 
ing the coin at the land-office than carry it further. 

The bank, conducted in the manner stated, prospered and 
became the principal monetary center of a large extent of 
country. Before the days of railroads and express com- 
panies, almost all the balances of the bank at Cincinnati and 
other commercial points were created by the transmission of 
money, which was generally sent by one of the officers, or 





^<<^<^1— ^ 




CITY OF RICHMOND. 395 

some other trusty person, traveling eitlier by stage, which 
was about twenty hours in going to Cincinnati, or b}' private 
conveyance, taking the greater part of two days when the 
roads were in good condition. 

The notes of the banks of many of the states were uncur- 
rent in otlier states; and persons travehng or removing were 
often obliged to exchange them at a discount. The bank at 
Kichmond aided much in facilitating business of this kind, 
and, as first turnpikes, then raih'oad^!, were constructed, con- 
formed to the change they produced, and still aided, in other 
ways, the growing business of the country. Those acquainted 
only with the present time, when there are so many means 
for the transmission of funds, and when there is a uniform 
national currency, can scarcely realize how great has been 
the chano;e since the commencement of the State Bank of 
Indiana. 

Bank of the State of Indiana. — In anticipation of the 
expiration of the charter of the state bank, the legislature, 
in 1855, passed the charter of the Bank of the State of Indiana. 
The managers of the old bank purchased the stock in most' 
of the branches, and assumed the management of the new 
bank, a responsibility for which their large experience had 
eminently fitted them. Hugh McCulloch, of Fort Wayne, 
afterward secretary of the treasury, was the president. 

The branch at Richmond was organized with Albert C. 
Blanchard as president, and Charles F. Coffin as cashier, and 
took the room and place of business of the state bank. It 
did a large and prosperous business ; but the uncertainty 
caused by the war, and the heavy taxation imposed on state 
banks by Congress, in order to drive them out of business, led 
its stockholders, in 1865, to wind up the institution. In the 
same year, the 

EiCHMOND Xational Bank was established under the 
national banking law, was opened in the room occu})ied by 
the bank of the state, and previously built for the state bank. 
Charles F. Coffin was elected president, and Albert II. , son of 
Albert C, cashier. This institution is still in successful 
operation. 

Citizens' Bank. — Several years before the expiration of the 



39G HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

charter of the okl state bank, Richmond liaving rapidly in- 
creased in population, wealth, and business, there seemed to be 
an opening for another bank; and in the year 1853, a private 
partnership was formed, consisting of Eobert Morrisson, Albert 
C. Blanchard, and Charles F. Coffin, under the style of Mor- 
risson, Blanchard & Co., and a bank was opened, called Cit- 
izens' Bank. Its first place of business was a small room on 
Main street, between Marion and Pearl. Its business was the 
same as that of the chartered bank, except that it did not issue 
notes for circulation. The large capital and high character of 
its proprietors secured for it unlimited credit and a prosperous 
business. A larger banking office being soon needed, the 
present large and elegant building on the corner of ]Main and 
Pearl streets was erected. Its banking room is one of the 
finest and most complete in the country. It has always been 
the policy of the Citizens' Bank to foster the trade and busi- 
ness of Richmond; and its loans have been made to small 
mechanics starting in business, as well as to the larger estab- 
lishments which needed aid. 

In 1865, Robert Morrisson died'; and his only child, James 
L. Morrisson, succeeded to his business. Albert C. Blanchard 
had previously [in 1863], after so many years of active devo- 
tion to business, retired therefrom, and on account of the ill 
health of some members of his family, reluctantly left the 
scene of his active labors — the home of iiis adoption — and the 
companions of his business life; and, having withdrawn his 
pecuniary interest from Indiana, he removed to Massachusetts, 
where he had purchased the home of his ancestors, and where 
he now lives in quiet retirement. He was succeeded in busi- 
ness by liis son Albert 11. Blanchard, the bank being still con- 
tinued in the name of Morrisson, Blanchard & Co., by Charles 
F. Coffin (one of the original proprietors), James L. Morris- 
son, and Albert II. Blanchard. 

The First National Bank of Richmond, organized under 
authority of the controller of the currency, to contiiuie for the 
term of nineteen years, commenced business July 13, 1863. 
Its capital stock was $110,000. Its directors were James E. 
Reeves, Edward W. Yarrington, Joshua Holland, Wm. S. 
Reid, John W. Grubbs, Isaac P. Evans, J. II. Moorman, J. 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 397 

Vanuxem, Jan., and Andrew F. Scott. Only two changes in 
the board have occurred: Thomas Woodnut in the place of 
Joshua Holland, resigned; and Mark E. Reeves in the place 
of E. W. Yarrington, deceased. At its commencement James 
E. Reeves was chosen president ; Edward W. Yarrington, 
cashier; Clement "W. Ferguson, teller; J. F. Reeves, book- 
keeper. In January, 1865, T. Gr. Yarrington was elected 
cashier in the place of E. W. Yarrington, resigned; David H. 
Dougan in the place of J. F. Reeves, resigned. In Septem- 
ber, 1866, John R. Dougan was appointed assistant book- 
keeper and messenger. In November, 1870, J. F. Reeves was 
chosen cashier in the place of T. G. Yarrington, resigned. 

In May, 1864, the capital stock was increased $55,000, and 
in May, 1865, §35,000, making the present capital -§200,000, 
all invested in United States 6 per cent, bonds. 

During a period of nearly eight years since the organization 
of the bank, it has loaned between thirteen and fourteen mill- 
ions of dollars, including over ten thousand bills and notes 
discounted ; and the entire losses incurred amount to less 
than four hundred dollars. 

Schools. 

The schools in Richmond, at the time of its incorporation as a 
town, w^ere probably but little in advance of those of the sur- 
rounding country. But as is usual among dense populations, 
embracing persons of the different trades and professions, the 
improvement of the schools was more rapid. Teachers of su- 
perior qualifications sought these places for greater compensa- 
tion. 

The general government had wisely appropriated a section 
of land [ISTo. 16,] in every original township for the support of 
schools. But it was many years before this fund afforded any 
considerable aid. Taxation was at length to some extent re- 
sorted to. Other sources of income to the school fund have 
been provided, and improvements made in the school system, 
until the schools of this state, under its well-devised system, 
have attained to a position equal to that of the schools of most 
of her sister states. 

The Friends, at an early day, established a school in the town. 
After the separation in 1828, the dissenting portion established 
one also, and built both a meeting-house and a school-house 



398 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

near tlie junction of Franklin street and Fort Wa3'no avenue. 
These private or select schools have been continued, with the 
exception of a few brief intervals, to the present time. The 
school building of the old society stands near the old White- 
water meeting-house. The other society sold their buildings a 
few years ago, and built on the square, between Eighth and 
Ninth streets, a meeting-house and a three-story brick school 
building, in which a good school is sustained. 

There are two large public school-houses in the city. A 
large, elegant brick house was erected, to take the place of the 
old one on the public square conveyed to the town by John 
Smith, in the south part of the town, between Front and 
Pearl streets. On North Fifth street, the present three-story 
brick house was bnilt several years since; and the old frame 
meeting-house alluded to is used for the instruction of one of 
the departments. 

From the report of the city superintendent, J. McNeill, it 
appears that the value of school property is $60,000 ; seating 
accommodations, 1,650; assessed value of city property, 
$5,260,301 ; number of children in the city entitled to the ben- 
efits of the public schools, 3,335 ; number of pupils enrolled dur- 
ing the year, 2,100; average number in daily attendance, 
1,514. 

The treasurer reports the amount received during the year 
from the special fand, $11,696,55 ; and the amount of expenses, 
$10,767.15. The amount received during the year from the 
tuition fund, $18,842.94, making the total receipts, $30,539.49. 
The total expenditures were $27,071.90. 

Earlham College. 

This institution is one mile west of Richmond, on the Na- 
tional road. It has a compass of 160 acres. This land is a 
part of what were formerly known as the Cook and Stewart 
farms, which were purchased by Indiana Yearly Meeting of 
Friends, in the year 1832. 

In 1847, the school was opened in two-fifths of the present 
building, and in the years 1853-54, the remainder was com- 
pleted. This institution was called " Friends' Boarding School " 
till 1859, w^hen it received its college charter. It is under 



CTTT OF RICHMOND. 399 

the charge of a board of managers appointed by Indiana 
Yearly Meeting. Its first president was Barnabas C. Hobbs, 
late superintendent of public instruction for the state of Indi- 
ana. There is both a preparatory and a college department, 
with two courses of study for each — a classical and a scientific. 

There are six professorships, as follows: 1. Moral philoso- 
phj' and geology. 2. Greek and Latin languages. 3. Mathe- 
matics and astronomy. 4. Chemistry and botany. 5. Modern 
languages and history. 6. English literature. Besides the 
professors in these several departments, there are from two to 
three teachers in the preparatory department. 

The college has a well furnished reading-room, and a library 
of over 3,000 volumes. The contents of a well selected cabi- 
net represent chiefly comparative anatomy, geology, conchol- 
ogy, and mineralogy. 

Both sexes are admitted to the institution, and have equal 
privileges and opportunities. 

Religious Societies. 

Friends. — The reader of the preceding pages must have ob- 
served that most of the earliest settlers in Wayne county were 
members of the society of Friends. Dr. Plummer, in his His- 
torical Sketch of Richmond, says : "A meeting of this society 
was established here as early as 1807, and was first held in a 
log building vacated by Jeremiah Cox, and by him furnished 
with seats ;" and "soon afterward," he says, "in the old log 
meeting-house of 1823, standing near the site of the present 
large brick one." Of this he remarks : " I remember its leaky 
roof, letting the rain through upon the slab benches with three 
pair of legs and no backs ; its charcoal fires kept in sugar ket- 
tle?, (for as yet stoves were not procured,) and the toes 
pinched with cold, of the young who sat remote from the ket- 
tles." Jesse Bond, John Morrow, and William Williams were 
among their earliest ministers. 

The first yearly meeting is said to have been held here in 
1821, in the log house. But as this house could not contain 
the many hundreds of Friends expected from all directions, 
and many of them from a great distance, a temporary build- 
ing or shed was erected for the male members, the house being 



400 HISTORY OP WAYNE COUNTY. 

designed for the females. As the country was as yet sparsely 
settled, and as many of the settlers still lived in their log 
houses, it was a mattter of some speculation how lodging and 
entertainment could be furnished for so large a number as were 
expected from abroad. ISTotwithstanding the bad roads, the 
attendance was large. Some came on horseback, others in 
farm wagons, with a covering of clotli stretched over wooden 
bows. As to their accommodations and fare during the meet- 
ing, it is sufficient to say, they were satisfied. 

At this meeting measures were taken to build a yearly meet- 
ing-house. A committee was appointed to report the next 
year. According to this report, a brick house was to be built, 
110 feet long, 60 feet wide, and sufficiently high to admit of a 
youth's gallery ; the funds to be raised by a tax upon the mem- 
bers of the meeting, now composed of several quarterly meet- 
ings. Although the people were yet poor, the house was built, 
its cost and appearance exhibiting a striking contrast with the 
expense and style of houses of worship built at the present time. 
The following statement of materials and cost is said to have 
appeared in the Public Ledger : The number of perches of stone 
in the foundation, 225; 66,000 bricks; 6,473 feet of hewed 
timber; 1,250 feet of sawed scantling; 43,200 shingles; 1,020 
panes of glass. The walls of the lower story were 22 inches 
thick; of the upper, 18 inches. Expenditures in cash were 
$3,489.91. Of the value of labor performed by members and 
other citizens without charge, probably no account was ever 
kept. 

Its walls were finished in 1823 ; but the building was not 
completed until the next year. The old house still performs 
its wonted service. Within its walls and inclosures thousands 
continue to assemble to transact the business of the meeting, 
to witness its proceedings, and to listen to the addresses of 
their preachers. The building of a new house has been pro- 
posed, but the proposition has as yet failed to receive the 
approval of any yearly meeting. 

Tiie other society of the Friends, finding their grounds and 
house of worship insufficient for the uses of the society, and 
desiring a better location, sold their property, and purchased 
the square between Eighth and Ninth streets, and east of 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 401 

Broadway. A more eligible site could not have been selected. 
On these grounds they erected, in 1865, their neat and commo- 
dious meeting-house, and, in 1867, their three-story brick 
school-house, in which a school of a high order is maintained. 
Presbyterian Church. — This church was formed JSTovem- 
ber 15, 1839. By appointment of Presbytery, J^ev. Peter 
H. Golliday and Rev. Edgar Hughes were present for the 
purpose of examining members. The persons composing the 
church at the time of its organization were: John Dougan, 
John B. Taylor, Thomas Young, Matthew B. Cochran, Ellis 
G. Young, Ebenezer Bishop, and Larkin Gordon, with their 
wives, Margaret Fryar, Mary Fryar, Cynthia Fryar, Fieldino- 
Young, Margaret E. Young, Wm. Clenedist, Jane Williams, 
Ann Sayre, Eliza Hamilton, l^ancy Park, Parmelia Maxwell, 

Wm. McGookin, Sarah Sturdevant, Watson, Sarah 

Jefiries, Wra. McGlathery, Lavina Fryar, Sarah Thompson. 
The first elders chosen were : John Dougan, Wm. McGlath- 
ery, and John B. Taylor. The names of those who have 
since been elected to this office are: Moses C. Brownino- 
Wm. L. Fryar, Thomas Hannah, Wm. Blanchard, liobert 
Fox, Almond Samson, A\^m. C. Scott, John Cheney, Daniel K. 
Zeller. The first minister was Charles Sturdevant, whose 
pastorate continued about four years. Those who have since 
served the church as preachers are: Thomas Whallon ; A. R. 
Naylor; F. P. Monfort, about five years ; Rev. McGuire, who, 
after about a j'ear and a half, died ; John F. Smith, three or 
four years; W. H. Van Doren, three or four years. In July, 
1864, L. W. Chapman became minister of the church, and 
continued until May, 1870. In July following, J. M. Huo-hes 
commenced his labors, and was installed as pastor a few 
months afterward. For a short time after the organization 
of the church, their meetings were held in the house of the 
United Presbyterians. The next year they built a frame 
meeting-house on Front street, between Walnut and Market 
streets. Their present brick church edifice on South Fifth 
street was commenced in July, 1852, and dedicated in Janu- 
ary or February, 1854. 

UxiTED Presbyterian Church. — This church, at the time of 
its organization, was called the Associate Reformed Presby- 
28 



402 HISTORY OF AVAYNE COUNTY. 

terian Church. The records of this church prior to October, 
1842, having been lost, the few facts of its early history here 
given are furnished chiefly from recollection, by one who was 
a member at the time of its organization. At the time of his 
settlement here, there were but few Presbyterians in this 
vicinity. The first sermon from a Presbyterian minister is 
supposed to have been preached by Alexander Porter, in 1824. 
Only occasional preaching, however, was had for many years. 
The first pastor, or settled minister, was Wm. M. Boyce, in 
1835 or 1836. A frame meeting-house was built on Pearl 
street, south of Main. Among those who became members 
at and near the time of the organization were: Robert 
Grimes, Daniel Reid, A. Grimes, Jeremiah L. Meek, and 
John Reid, with their wives, widow Grimes, Mary Kibby, 
James McFadden, Mary Davidson, Isaac Conley. Robert 
Grimes and Daniel Reid were chosen elders. The name of 
Joseph McCord appears on record as an elder at a meeting of 
the session in 1843. The pastorate of Mr. Boyce terminated 
in 1851 ; after which the church had for many years no set- 
tled pastor or stated preaching. In 1858, it assumed the 
name of the United Presbyterian Church, and Adrian Aten 
became its pastor. In August, ] 862, Robert Grimes, one of 
its elders, died. In October, 1863, Wm. S. Reid and John J. 
Conley were chosen elders. In 1864, it is believed, the labors 
of Mr. Aten as pastor ceased ; and on the 7th of May, 1866, 
i^^ixon E. Wade was ordained and installed. About the same 
time the society decided to build a new house of worship; 
and in November following, [1866,] Wm. S. Reid was chosen 
"to take the entire superintendence of the new church build- 
ing." David II. Dougan was elected treasurer; and Daniel 
Reid, John J. Conley, and David H. Dougan, trustees for the 
ensuing year. On Sabbath, September 15, 1867, the congre- 
gation entered their new house of worship for the first time. 
The opening sermon was preached by Wm. Davidson, D. D., 
of Hamilton, Ohio. July 17, 1869, A. M. Weed was chosen an 
elder. In February, 1870, Rev. Joseph W. Clokey, the pres- 
ent pastor, commenced his labors, and was installed the 28th 
of April following. 



CITY OF EICHMOND. 403 

Methodist Churches. — Next to tliat of the Friends, the first 
religious society in Richmond was the Methodist Episcopal. 
The exact date of its organization is not easily ascertained. 
Dr. Plummer says: "The first meeting was held in 1819 in a 
small log house on Front street. Daniel Fraley was perhaps 
the first preacher in this section of country. He ofliciated 
in 1814 [it was in 1816] to Chryst, the first legally convicted 
murderer in Wayne county. John "W. Sullivan was the first 
stationed Methodist minister in Richmond." Rev. R. Toby, 
in his discourse in Pearl Street church, April 4,1869, on the 
origin and progress of Methodism in Richmond, says, that 
in 1822, Russell Bigelow was preacher in charge of White- 
water circuit. [According to Rev. W. C. Smith, in a 
chapter on the "Progress of Methodism," Allen Wiley and 
James T. Wells were appointed to Whitewater circuit in 1822, 
and Russell Bigelow in 1823.] We learn further from Mr. 
Toby, that, after some eftbrt to obtain a house to preach in, 
the use of a small school-house was obtained. Mr. Bigelow, 
he says, preached the first sermon delivered by a Methodist 
in Richmond. A small class was organized, whose meetings 
were held for a time in the house of Mrs. Pierson. The mem- 
bers of this class are stated by Rev. Mr. Smith, to have been 
George Smith and Sarah, his wife, Mercy B. Smith, Rachel S. 
Smith, Stephen Thomas and Margaret, his wife, and Margaret 
Pierson. 

Richmond having been given up for a time. Rev. James 
Havens, in the autumn of 1825, succeeded in re-establishing 
Methodism here. A frame meeting-house was built on or 
near the present site of the Pearl Street church; and in 1838, 
Richmond became a station. In 1851, the present brick 
church was built; the old frame building having been re- 
moved to Seventh street, south of and near Main, and con- 
verted into a dwelling house. The names of the pastors of 
this church, in the order of their appointment, are : John W. 
Sullivan, J. Tarkington, J. H. Hull, R. D. Robinson, A. Con- 
well, W. Wheeler, J. M. Stagg, C. W. MiUer, J. II. Hull (sec- 
ond time), W. H. Goode, f. Webb, J. W. Staftbrd, S. T. 
Cooper, A. Eddy, V. M. Beamer, H. N. Barnes, J. Col- 



404 HISTORY OF V\'ArN'E COUNTY. 

clazer, J. W. T. McMullen, Dr. T. S. Jolinson, now missionary 
to India, C. K Sims, N. H. Phillips, E. Toby, and J. Y. R. 
Miller, the present pastor. 

Grace Church [Methodist Episcopal,] was formed, August 
24, 1858, chiefly, from members of the Pearl Street church. 
They bought the property now owned by the Central church, 
and fitted up the second story for a place of worship, which 
was named Union Chapel, and occupied by the society until 
the completion of their new house on the south-west corner 
of Seventh street and Broadway, which bears the name of 
Grace Church. This is a large and elegant, as well as the 
most costly church edifice in the city. It was built in 1868, 
under the general superintendence of a building committee, 
consisting of Charles T. Price, Wm. G. Scott, Isaac D.Dunn, 
E. M. Baylies, Clinton McWhinney, and Lewis Burk. The 
cost of the building and lot was a little less than $40,000. 
The names of the ministers in charge, and the years of their 
appointments, are as follows: J. V. E. Miller, 1858; F. A. 
Hardin, 1860 ; A. Greenman, 1861 ; W. H. Goode, A. S. Kin- 
nan, 1863; "VTm. AYilsou, 1865, resigned during the first 
quarter, and was succeeded by A. Marine, 1865 ; A. S. Kiunan, 
1868; E. B. Snyder, 1870; A. A. Brown, 1871. 

Central Methodist Episcopal Church. — A society of 
Methodists, the third charge of that denomination in the 
city, was organized in 1867. Among the leading men in 
this movement were : David Sands, Barton "Wyatt, George 
"W. lliff", James Hanoilton, Dr. Daniel. Lesh, and AVm. Gor- 
such. The society occupied a meeting-house, on the corner 
of Marion and Market streets, until 1868, when David Sands 
and Barton Wyatt purchased the Union Chapel buildings, on 
Main street, previously owned by the second church, [Grace.] 
The place of worship is in the second story, the lower story 
being occupied by business men. In 1870, the property was 
bought by the society. The pastors of this church have 
been : J. R. Layton, Patrick Carland, C. AY. Miller, and 
Thomas Comstock, the present incumbent. 

Episcopal Church. — The first Episcopal services in this 
city were held in the winter of 1837, by Bishop Jackson 
Kemper, of AVisconsin. In the ensuing spring, Eev. Mr. 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 405 

Waldo came and preached two months in the Warner build- 
ing. In the summer and fall of this year, Rev. George Fisk, 
sent by the Board of Domestic Missions of that church, com- 
menced his labors with this society. They occupied, for a time, 
the Warner building, and then removed to the Masonic 
Lodge room, in the back part of Joshua W. Haines' building, 
on Main street. The church was regularly organized in Feb- 
ruary, 1839. The vestrymen elected were : James W. Borden, 
Stephen B. Stanton, George Arnold, Harmon B.Payne, John 
J). McClellan. Wardens: James B. Green and H. B. Payne. 
Clerk, Ebenezer T. Turner. Rev. Mr. Fisk, on account of 
protracted ill health, resigned his charge in 1855, and died in 
February, 1860. Rev. John B. Wakefield was chosen rector 
on the resignation of Mr. Fisk, and continues to serve the 
church in that capacity. The society commenced building 
their present church edifice in 1810, and first occupied the 
basement in 1842. The house was finished in 1849, and con- 
secrated the 20th of December of that year. 

l!^EW Jerusalem Church. — An organization of the New 
Church in Richmond was effected in October, 1849, by Dr. O. 
P. Baer, Dr. Joseph Howells, Jacob Purington, Sidney Smith, 
Wm. Austin, and their families. The society flourished but 
for a short time. Most of the families removing: from the 
city, its support was devolved chiefly upon Dr. Baer, who 
procured occasional preaching from missionaries visiting 
Richmond, meetings being held wherever places could be ob- 
tained. In 1867, he hired Rev. G. l!Telson Smith, of Urbana, 
Ohio, to preach every four weeks at his residence. And in 
March, 1869, was formed a permanent organization of a so- 
ciety for a more effective promulgation of the doctrines of the 
New Church. A meeting w^as called of " all those persons who 
believed the doctrines of the Lord, as taught by Emanuel 
Swedenborg," at which meeting Dr. Baer submitted a decla- 
ration of principles and doctrine, and a constitution, which 
were accepted and signed by Dr. 0. P. Baer, Mrs. 0. P. Baer, 
Frank Pruyn, Mrs. A. Pruyn, J. H. Elder, his wife, and 
daughter, Sarah Wrigley, Julia Finley, Esther Chandler, 
Martin L. Crocker and his Avife, David Strawbridge, and 
Thomas Deyarmou. Five trustees were elected, to wit : 



406 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Frank Priiyii, secretary ; 0. P. Baer, treasurer and chair- 
man ; Thomas Deyarmon, David Strawbridge, and John II. 
Elder. In May following, it was resolved to build a church 
edifice; and a subscription paper was drawn. The lot on the 
south-east corner of Franklin and Walnut streets was pur- 
chased for |1,500; and a contract was made for the building 
of the house for ^3,650. The whole cost, in its present con- 
dition, was about $6,000; of which $2,000 was raised by sub- 
scription, the remainder by Dr. Baer and his wife. The 
temple was dedicated on Sunday, January 23, 1870, by Eev. 
George Field, assisted by Rev. Frank Sewal. Mr. Field was 
elected as minister, and is serving the society with accept- 
ance. A Sabbath-school is well sustained by the congrega- 
tion. The temple is a fine brick structure, of Gothic style, 
seating comfortably 175 persons. 

Baptist Church. — This church and society, which has ex- 
isted about seven years, commenced holding its meetings in 
April, 1865, in 'No. 3 Engine Hall, with an attendance of 
twelve to eighteen persons. A Sabbath-school of 30 scholars 
was commenced in June following ; and on the 30tli of July, 
a church of 22 members was formed. After having Avor- 
shiped in the hall about six months, they met in what was 
known as Iladley's Hall. In 1866, a lot on Eighth street, 
near and north of Main, was purchased for a house of wor- 
ship. In April, 1867, a larger room having become necessary, 
meetings were held in Phillips' Hall, until the completion of 
the lecture room of the new church edifice, in January, 1869. 
This building was commenced in June, 1868, with very 
limited means within the society. Eev. J. P. Agenbroad, 
the pastor, E. E. Beetle, and C. S. Farnham, were ai:>pointed 
a building committee, and were also to collect funds. The 
building has been completed, except the spire and some 
internal arrangements. By the observance of a strict econ- 
omy, it has been brought to its present condition, at a cost 
not exceeding $15,000. It is a spacious, convenient build- 
ing, containing a pastor's study, and a room designed for 
festivals and other social gatherings. The membership of 
the church has been increased to about 150. To the assidu- 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 407 

ous labors of its pastor, is the cliurch greatly indebted for its 
temporal and spiritual prosperit3^ 

A Congregational Church was organized in Kichmoud, in 
1835. Rev. Peter Crocker, not then residing in the city, 
commenced preaching to the congregation every alternate 
Sabbath. The society, having no house of worship of its 
own, hired a house in the south part of the city. The dea- 
cons of this church were John Sailor and Phelps. At the 

expiration of one year, Mr. Crocker removed to the city, and 
the congregation became his sole charge. In 1831), the or- 
ganization was discontinued, and most of its members united 
with the Presbyterian church. 

EicHMOND Friends' Meeting was organized in 18G4. They 
occupied as their place of worship, a meeting-house on the 
corner of Marion and Market streets, until 1867, when their 
present house of worship on Fifth street, commenced in 
1866, was completed. This meeting was composed of what 
is termed the " Orthodox " Friends, and its formation was 
induced by the excessive numbers of the old meeting, and 
the inconvenience of attending meeting for worship in the 
remote part of the city. The new building is a neat and 
commodious edifice of moderate size, being 75 by 45 feet, and 
costing about $15,000. The building committee consisted of 
Charles F. Coffin, Hugh Maxwell, Benj. Johnson, Stephen 
Mendcnhall, and John Mcholson. This is one of the four 
preparative meetings which belong to the old Whitewater 
monthly meeting. 

St. Andrew's Church and Congreration, the first Catholic 
church, for both German and Irish Catholics, was built by 
Rev. Father John Ryan, in the year 1846, corner of Pearl and 
Sycamore streets, where now the new church stands. The 
new building was erected, under Rev. Father J. B. Seepe, in 
the year 1-859. It is 120 feet long, 60 feet wide, and 40 feet 
high. In 1870, the steeple was completed, being 110 feet 
high, and three bells were purchased, and a fine clock, under 
the direction of the present pastor, Rev. F. Ilundt. The 
St. Andrew's congregation has about 200 families, and has 
three schools under the direction of one male teacher and two 
sisters. 



408 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

German Evangelical Lutheran Church. — This church [St. 
John's,] was organized in 1845 or 1846; and a brick house of 
worship was erected in 1846, on South Front street, and en- 
larged in 1855. Their first pastor was E. C. Shultz ; the pres- 
ent is Gottlieb Lovenstein. N^umber of members, about 200. 

Another German Evangelical Lutheran Church [St. Paul's,] 
was organized in 1853. Their house of worship is on South 
Franklin street. Their first pastor was Eev. Schamm; the 
present is J. Eehsteiner. The congregation numbers about 
the same as that of St. John's. 

Irish Catholic Church [St, Mary's.] — The date of its or- 
ganization has not been furnished. The church building was 
erected in 1853-54, for the English Evangelical Lutheran 
Congregation, organized in 1853 ; the expense of the building, 
$7,000, having been borne principally by Lewis Burk. About 
twelve years ago, it was purchased by the Catholics, and has 
since been enlarged. First pastor, Father Aegidius Mertz ; 
secoud, Father John Yillars; and for the last four years, 
Father Frank Moitrier. 

Benevolent Societies. 

Children's Home. — This truly benevolent institution is 
worthy of record in our history. It was established April 1, 
1867, and is under the management and control of a society 
known as the " Union Relief Association" whose object is to 
aid the indigent of the city. The good work of seeking out 
the needy and the suft'ering, and of administering relief, was 
actively prosecuted for a few years, when it became apparent 
that greater good could be accomplished by gathering up the 
destitute children, orphans and half orphans, and those in 
an equally pitiable condition, abandoned by their natural 
guardians, and placing them where not only their ph^^sical 
wants would be properly attended to, but where especial care 
might be bestowed upon their moral and intellectual culture. 
The object of the institution is to procure for them good and 
permanent homes, where they may grow up under these 
wholesome influences, and become useful members of society. 
The Home has fully met the expectations of its founders, 
and has thus far been wholly supported by voluntary con- 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 409 

tributious. The beneficial results of the quiet labors of the 
members of the association, are constantly increasing the 
number of the friends and patrons of the institution. 

Home for the Friendless. — This institution was organized 
JSTovember 4, 1867, under the auspices of the Young Men's 
Christian Association, by a committee of ladies, appointed by 
the association. The object of the founders of the Home is 
the relief of suffering females — women and children — es- 
pecially the reclamation of that most unfortunate and 
abandoned class whose reformation is generally supposed to 
be hopeless. The Home is at present on South Seventh 
street. Of the inmates, those who are able to labor are 
furnislicd with work. Some are provided with homes in 
good families, or in other ways cared for. The average 
number of inmates has been less than 25. The number ad- 
mitted during the jear has averaged about 115. Of the 
class denominated "fallen girls," the yearly average is nearly 
50. Among these have been several marked cases of 
reformation. 

The officers of the society are : Rhoda M. Coffin, president ; 
S. A. Ilift", vice-president; K. A. Mendenhall, secretar}'; Mrs. 
J. Elder, treasurer; Mrs. E. L. Johnson, superintendent; Mrs. 
R. A. Stanton, matron. 

Building Associations. 

The object of a building association is to raise moneys 
from the savings of its members, to be loaned to members of 
the association, for use in buying lots or houses, and in build- 
ing and repairing houses, and for such other purposes as are 
provided for in the act of the legislature, approved March 
5, 1857, authorizing the incorporation of such associations. 

The capital stock of each association is limited to |100,000, 
and is divided into shares of §200 each. Seven of these as- 
sociations have been organized in Richmond since March, 
1870, with an aggregate capital of §700,000. The titles of the 
associations and the names of their officers are as follows: 

Pioneer Building Association, organized March 7, 1870. 
Directors — Charles P.Peterson, president ; Edward II. Conkle, 
vice-president; John H. Dickmau, secretary; W. P. "Wilson, 



410 HISTORY OP WAYNE COUNTY. 

treasurer; Richard A. Howard, James M. Poe, Lewis K. 
Harris, Frederick Maag, M. E. Hill is. 

Richmond Building Association, organized April 18, 1870. 
Directors — DanielK. Zeller, president; Daniel B. Crawford, 
vice-president; James J. Russell, secretary; Ethan C. Kelly, 
treasurer ; James M. Poe, Benj. W. Elliott, Thomas J. ISTewby, 
Charles P. Peterson, Jonas W. Yeo. 

Whiteavater Building Association, organized January 9, 
1871. Directors — James M. Poe, president ; Charles P. Peter- 
son, vice-president; James J. Russell, secretary; John W. 
Randall, treasurer; Wm. II. Brandall, John II. Bickman, 
George "W". Mallis, Arthur A. Curme, Peter Johnson. 

Mechanics' Building Association, organized February 7, 
1871. Directors — Lewis K. Harris, president; Henry H. 
Meerhoff, vice-president ; John H. Bickman, secretary ; Wm. 
Bartel, treasurer; John H. Dickinson, Henry Meyer, Henry 
Cutter, Richard A. Howard, "W. Hawecotte. 

Fifth Building Association, organized February 14, 1871. 
Directors — Edward Bellis, president ; Oran Perr}^, vice-presi- 
dent; James J. Russell, secretary; David H. Dougan, treas- 
urer; Clement "W.Ferguson, Arthur A. Curme, James M. 
Poe, Wm. J. Hiatt, Edward H. Dennis. 

Sixth Building Association, organized March 7, 1871. 
Directors — Frederick Rosa, president ; George H. Snj^der, vice- 
president; John H. Dickman, secretary ; Henry Cutler, treas- 
urer; D. Feltman, Geo. Schnelle, Geo. Hasecoster, John 
Koehring, Henry Tieman. 

Seventh Building Association, organized April 18, 1871. 
Directors — John S. Lyle, president; Phil. F. Wiggins, vice- 
president; James J. Russell, secretary; John B. Dougan, 
treasurer; James M. Poe, Benj. W.Elliott, James E.Thomas, 
Stephen S. Strattan, M. W. Ilobbs. 

Richmond Industrial Association. 

This association was organized May 12, 1870, with a capital 
stock of $30,000, divided in shares of ^^10. It purchased of 
Nathan Hawkins 32 acres of ground lying on Seventeenth 
street for $15,000. Expended for improvements, about 
$16,000. First Board of Directors— Jonas W. Yeo, Arthur 







M' 



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SifO 



cCL^^^w" ^-^.w..-^ 



CITY OF RICILMOXD. 411 

A. Curme, Edward Y. Teas, J. M. Gaar, T. W. Roberts, W. 
H. 33ennett, W. C. Starr, John J. Conley, Levi Druley, Ste- 
phen Farlow, John Brooks. Officers — J. Milton Gaar, Presi- 
dent ; Jonas W. Yeo, Vice-President ; Oran Perry, Secre- 
tary; C. W. Ferguson, Treasurer; C. Fetta, Superintendent. 
Annual meetings are held on the first Monday in February. 
The officers for 1870 were re-elected in 1871. The first Fair 
was held September 25th to 30th, inclusive. The second fair, 
September 11th to 16th, inclusive. Both fairs were attended 
with complete success, equaling the state fairs in the quantity 
and quality of articles on exhibition. 

Biographical and Genealogical. 

William Bell was born in Belfast, Ireland, in 1797. In 
that large commercial city he and his revered father composed 
the widely-known firm of John Bell & Co., a very extensive 
manufacturing and exporting concern, giving employment to 
several thousand persons. A great financial crisis destroyed 
their business, and involved them in overwhelming losses. 
From this shock the subject of this notice never recovered. 
In 1842, he left his native land for the United States. He 
was a prominent member of the society of Friends, and a 
faithful defender of its principles and testimonies. For five 
years previous to Ids coming to this country he edited the 
Irish Friend, in Avhich he boldly promulgated the principles 
and measures he hekl so dear. He was a resident of liich- 
m.ond for about twenty years. During this time he was ever 
ready to co-operate in works of benevolence. The cause of 
temperance, the abolition of slavery, and other objects of a 
philanthropic character, received his ardent and active sup- 
port. He died March 5, 1871. 

TnoMAS W. Bennett was born in Union county, Indiana, 
Feb. 16, 1831. His father was a farmer, and raised his son 
to work on the farm. In 1850, at the age of 19, he entered 
Indiana Asbury University, where he completed his educa- 
tion in July, 1854. Immediately afterward he began the 
study of the law, and after a full course, graduated in the law 
school of the Asbury University in July, 1855. During the 
spring and summer of 1853, he was Professor of Mathematics 



412 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

and Natural Science in Whitewater College in Centerville. 
lie commenced the practice of his profession at Liberty, in 
his native county, in the fall of 1855, and continued in the 
practice actively until the breaking out of the rebellion in 
1861. On the first call for troops, in April, he raised a com- 
pany of volunteers, and entered the army as a captain, in the 
15th Regiment of Indiana V^olunteers. He served in that ca- 
pacity in "Western Virginia until Sept., 18G1, when he was pro- 
moted to major of the 8Gth Regiment, in which he served dur- 
ing tlic whole of Gen. Buell's campaign to IN^ashville, Shiloh, 
East Tennessee, the great retreat to Louisville, Ky., and the 
pursuit of Bragg. In October, 1862, he was appointed by Gov. 
Morton colonel of the 69tli Regiment, With his command 
he joined Sherman's army at Memphis, and participated in 
the failure to capture Vicksburg in Dec, 1862, and in the 
capture of Arkansas Post in Jan., 18G3. He was engaged in 
all the movements and battles which resulted in the capture 
of Vicksburg, in July, 1863; was in command of a brigade 
in the Tesclie and Red River campaigns under Banks, and 
served in that capacity until detailed by the War Depart- 
ment in Sept., 1864, as a mend^er of the military commission 
which tried and convicted the notorious conspirators Bowles, 
Milligan, and Horsey. At the election of 1864, he was 
elected a senator from Union and Fayette counties, a position 
which he had held for two years before the war, and took a 
leading part in that body. Since 1856 he has been actively 
engaged in politics, making public speeches in successive 
campaigns in most of the counties of the state. After the 
close of the war, and his term in the senate, he made a tour 
of Europe, and returning, he moved to Richmond in Aug., 
1868, and in the spring of 1869 was elected Mayor of that 
city, serving until May, 1871, when he resumed the practice 
of the law. In 1871, he was appointed by President Grant 
Governor of Idaho Territory. 

William Blancuard w^as born in Brookfield, Mass., Oct- 
1, 1800. In 1826 he was married to Isabella F. Foster, who 
was born in Worcester, Mass. He removed the same year to 
Rhinebeck,]^. Y., and in 1835 to Richmond, where, in connec- 
tion with his brother, Albert C. Blanchard, he commenced the 






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^■^■' 




CITY OF RICHMOND. 413 

mercantile business, in which he continued until about the 
year 1859. He has been for many years a notary public and 
an insurance agent; and he has been an elder in the Presby- 
terian Church from its organization to the present time. Ilis 
children were Fatima Catharine, Wm. A., Jane Eliza, Mary 
I., and Emma. Fatima C. married W. J. Culton, and resides 
in Chicago. "Wm. A. married Elmira Bailey, of Cincinnati ; 
resides near that city, and is in the commission business. Jane 
E. married Dr. Harrington, of Richmond, who died and left 
two daughters. Mary I. married George H. Grant; they re- 
side in Eichmond. Emma married Frank Yanuxem, of the 
firm of Leeds & Co., hardware merchants in Kichmond. 

Lewis Burk was born near Lexington, Ky., March 23, 1799. 
He removed early to this state with his father, who settled 
about a mile and a half south from where Richmond now is. 
He worked on the farm a few years, and went back to Ken- 
tucky to learn the blacksmith's trade, and returned after three 
years. His trade not furnishing him constant employment, he 
took up that of stone-mason, working alternately at each. He 
received in those days of low wages only $8 a month as a 
journeyman blacksmith, and 50 cents a day for laying stone, 
where, in later days, he received §2.50 a day at his regular 
trade. In 1831, he built, and for several years kept, the tavern- 
house which he sold to the late Daniel D. Sloan, at present the 
property of A. M. Miller, on Main street. From about the 
year 1832, he was for about ten years a stage proprietor, aud 
for several years a dealer in horses. In 1840, he was elected a 
representative to the legislature, and afterward to the senate. 
In 1852, he commenced the banking business as an individual 
banker. He continued this business until after the passage of 
the national banking law, when he sold his banking liouse and 
appurtenances to James E. Reeves. Mr. Burk was married to 
Maria Moffitt, November 27, 1823. They had five children, of 
whom only one, Mary Jane, lived beyond the period of child- 
hood. She is the wife of Isaac H. Richards, merchant, now 
residing at Springfield, Missouri. 

Elijah Coffin, son of Bethuel and Hannah (Dicks) Coffin, 
was born in New Garden, Guilford Co., N. C, Nov. 17, 1798. 
He was married, Feb. 2, 1820, to Naomi Hiatt, and settled on 



414 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

a farm in ITew Garden. In 1824, he removed, with his wife 
and three children, to this county, near Milton, and engaged 
in school-keeping in that town ; a business in which he had 
been employed at times, in his native state, before and after 
his marriage. In 1829, he. commenced the mercantile busi- 
ness at Milton, and continued it there about four years. In 

1833, having received a liberal offer from Griffin & Luckey, 
wholesale merchants in Cincinnati, he engaged as clerk in 
their store, and removed to that city. He remained there 
about a year and a half, when the branch of the State Bank of 
Indiana having been located at Hichmond, he was chosen as 
its cashier, a position for which he had, in a great measure, 
been Htted by his mercantile experience ; and in ITovember, 

1834, he removed to Richmond. The branch bank com- 
meuced business Dec. 1, 1834, and closed at the expiration of 
the term of its charter, Jan. 1, 1859, after a successful, pros- 
perous management of more than twenty-four years, during 
which period he was its only cashier. 

At the final meeting of the board of directors, Dec. 24, 
1858, the following resolution was ofiered by Robert Morris- 
son and adopted : 

'■'■It is unanimously resolved, That in consideration of the 
able and faithful services of Elijah Coffin, as cashier of this 
branch, from its first organization to its close, and the fidel- 
ity and promptitude with which he has discharged the various 
and important duties confided to his care, the board embrace 
the opportunity to express upon our minutes the high sense 
entertained of his official services and private worth." 

He now gave up secular business. His religious activities, 
however, were unabated. His energies were thenceforth di- 
rected to the promotion of the interests of the church. Al- 
though ho ever sympathized with evangelical Christians of 
other denominations, he was peculiarly attached to the society 
in which he had been trained ; and hence, to the various insti- 
tutions and instrumentalities of its own appointment, he con- 
tributed largely by his personal efforts and pecuniary means. 
He was at an early age clerk of the yearly meeting of 
Friends in North Carolina; and, in 1827, was appointed clerk 
of Indiana yearly meeting. Not only was he a prompt and 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 415 

faithful attendant at the various meetings in his own state, 
but he attended yearly meetings in many of the states. He 
was also a friend and patron of education, of First-day or 
Sabbath-schools, of associations to promote the circulation of 
religious tracts and the diffusion and reading of the Holy Scrip- 
tures; and he had, many years before his death, constituted 
himself a life member of the American Bible Society. He 
died Jan. 22, 1862. His wife died June 14, 1866, aged 68 
years. 

Elijah and ISTaomi CoflBn had seven children : 1. Miriam A., 
who married Wm. A. Rambo, and had three children, Ed- 
ward B., ITaomi C, and Fraiicis H. After the death of her 
husband she married Hugh Maxwell. 2. Charles _F., who 
married Rhoda M. Johnson. Their children are Elijah, 
Charles II., Francis A., Wm. E., and Percival. Mr. C. has 
been, during a great portion of his life, in the banking busi- 
ness in Richmond. He was one of the original proprietors 
of the Citizens' Bank, established in 1853, and cashier of the 
Richmond Branch of the "Bank of the State" during its 
existence; and has been president of the Richmond National 
Bank from its commencement to the present time. 3. Will- 
iam H.,who married Sarah Wilson, whose children are John 
W., William H., Albert, Robert, Frank. 4. Eliphalet, who 
died at the age of three years. 5. Caroline JE., wife of Wm. 
II. Ladd, Brooklyn, jST. Y. 6. 3Iary C, wife of Eli Johnson, 
Chicago. 7. Hannah, who married Mordecai Morris White, 
merchant, in Cincinnati. 

Jeremiah Cox was born in Randolph Co., N". C. ; married 
Margery Picket, and in 1806 removed with his family to this 
county, and settled where Richmond now is. His settlement 
here and Ijis connection with the early history of the city, 
have been already noticed. His farm embraced nearly all of 
the present city north of Main street. He was in 1816 a 
member of the Convention which formed the first constitu- 
tion of the state. In 1826, he sold his farm to Charles W. 
Starr, and removed to Randolph Co., 5 miles from Winches- 
ter, where he resided until his death. He was married three 
times, and had sixteen children. By his first wife he had 
seven daughters and one son, Jeremiah. The eldest daughter, 



416 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Elizabeth, married Charles Moftitt, father of Hugh Moffitt. 
By his second wife, Jemima Rhodes, he had a son. For his 
third wife he married Catharine Morrisson, sister of Robert 
Morrisson,and had by her six sons and one daughter. Of all 
the children only Jeremiah remains in the township. 

Daniel B. Crawford was born in Harford Co., Md., E'ov. 
10, 1807, and at the age of 7, removed with his mother's 
family to Baltimore ; and thence he came, in 1835, to Wayne 
township, 2| miles north of Richmond. Although he settled 
on a new farm, and had some experience of life in the woods, 
his first dwelling was a frame house, something rarely seen 
in a forest. In 1850, Mr. Crawford commenced the mercan- 
tile business in Richmond, in which he is still engaged. He 
was in 1849 elected a county commissioner, which office he 
has held, with the exception of 6 years, until the year 1870. 
He is a member of the Pearl Street Methodist Episcopal 
Church, and has at intervals been the superintendent of its 
Sabbath-school for more than twenty years. He was married 
in Baltimore to Agnes Corrie. They had 9 children : Daniel 
J., who married Mary, daughter of Frederick Hoover, and 
died on the farm. May 7, 1870. Elijah J. ; died at 5. Mary 
F., wife of Joseph C. Ratlitf, and lives in Center township. 
John Y., who married Ella Mitchell, daughter of Thomas C. 
Mitchell, merchant, Fifth street. Sarah R., who married 
Frederick Cramer, of Ohio, now a merchant in Philadelphia. 
Charles W. ; died at 5. Agnes S., who married James Will- 
iams, and resides on Fifth street, Richmond. Elizabeth A. 
W., who married J. 0. Yoorhies, merchant, Keokuk, Iowa. 
Robert ; died in infancy. 

Benjamin AY. Davis was born in Franklin, Warren Co., 
0., Sept. 3, 1815. He came to Richmond, May 4, 1834, and 
worked as a journeyman printer one year for Finley & HoUo- 
way. He then engaged to print the Richmond Palladium 
for John Finley, one year; and after the expiration of that 
term [in 183G], himself and David P. Holloway purchased the 
Palladium, the publication of which, under the firm of Hol- 
loway & Davis, has been continued to the present time. Mr. 
Davis was chosen city clerk, which oflice he held from 1848 




y5.--— w*5». 











17^-.*?^^ r 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 417 

until 1859, a period of 11 j^ears. He married Elizabeth Flem- 
ing, a daughter of David, son of Judge Peter Fleming. 

John Finley was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, 
January 11, 1797. After acquiring a knowledge of the rudi- 
ments of an English education at a country school, he was 
apprenticed to the tanner's business ; and on the completion 
of his term of service, he emigrated to Indiana, in 1821, 
Soon after his arrival in Richmond he undertook, for a term 
of years, the management of John Smith's tannery ; but after 
conducting it for a single season, he abandoned it. In 1826, 
he was married to Rachel H. Knott, of Yellow Springs, Ohio, 
who lived but a few months after marriage. In 1830, he was 
married to Julia Hanson, of Indianapolis. In 1831, he as- 
sumed the editorial management of the Richmond Palladium, 
in which position he continued for three years. He was for 
three years a member of the state legislature, and for three 
years enrolling clerk of the senate. In March, 1837, he was 
elected clerk of the courts of Wayne county for the term of 
seven years. In January, 1852, he was elected mayor of the 
city of Richmond, and was continued in that office by annual 
re-elections to the time of his death, December 23, 1866. He 
was buried in Maple Grove Cemetery, east of the city, in 
the presence of a large concourse of citizens and members 
of the masonic order, and the officers of the city govern- 
ment. Mr. Finley had, by his first marriage, a son, William 
K, ; by the second, Sarah A., Julia H., Mary F., and John 
H. Sarah A. was married to Benjamin P. Wrigley, who is 
deceased, and has two sons, Roy F. and Luke H. She has 
been for seven years, and is still, librarian of the Morrisson 
Library. Mary F. married Aaron W. Hibberd, and resides 
in Richmond. John H. enlisted early in the late war, in the 
Sixteenth Indiana Regiment; was promoted to 2d lieutenant, 
and soon after appointed adjutant of the regiment. After the 
expiration of the term of his enlistment he raised, in 1862, a 
company for the Sixty-seventh Regiment, and was commis- 
sioned captain; and in 1863, was made major. While charg- 
ing upon the Rebel works at Vicksburg, he received a mortal 
wound, and died Aug. 26, 1863. He was an estimable young 
29 



418 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

man, and possessed of qualities which endeared him to his 
fellow-soldiers and companions. 

William W. Foulke, son of Anthony Foulke, came when 
a boy from Pennsylvania with his father, who settled 2 miles 
north from Richmond. With a tolerable school education he 
commenced business as a blacksmith. A friend of literary 
apd other associations, he took an active part in the discus- 
sions of debating clubs and in the promotion of the temper- 
ance cause. A few years since he was elected as a representa- 
tive of the county in the legislature. He has for man}^ years 
been engaged in the iron and heavy hardware trade on Noble 
street, near the railroad depot, and resides a short distance 
outside and north of the city, near the oil-mill. He was mar- 
ried, in 1854, to Mary E., a daughter of Thomas INewman, 
and has two children, Elizabeth Ellen and Harriet Emma. 

Jonas Gaar, son of Abram Gaar, was born in Virginia, and 
removed to this county with his father. In 1820, he settled 
in the new town of Richmond and worked many years at his 
trade, that of a cabinet-maker. In 1835, he joined with 
Achilles Williams and others in establishing a foundry and 
machine manufactory ^'whioh was continued two or three years. 
This enterprise proved a disastrous failure to those engaged 
in it. In 1849, in connection with his sons Abram and 
John M., and Wm. G. Scott, a son-in-law, he bought of 
Jesse M. and John H. Hutton their Thresher Manufactory, 
which has grown to the extensive establishment known as 
the " Spring Foundry," but at present styled " Garr 31achine 
Works." [See Richmond Manufactures.] This iirm has 
been continued without change of name until the present 
time. Jonas Garr was born Feb. 1, 1792, in Madison Co., 
Ya., and was married, Nov. 12, 1818, to Sarah Watson, who 
was born May 2, 1793. They had eight children, all born in 
Wayne county. 1. Abram, who was born Nov. 14, 1819, 
and was married March 26, 1851, to Agnes Adams, who was 
born May 2, 1831. 2. Malinda, born Nov. 11, 1821 ; married 
June 3, 1847, to Wm. G. Scott, who was born in Rockingham 
Co., Va., Nov. 17, 1824. Malinda died April 6, 1848. 3. John 
Milton, born May 26,1823; married Jan. 20, 1848, to Hannah 
Ann Rattray, who died June 6, 1849. He married, a second 






f^T^t^ ^{L^t^^. 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 419 

time, Sept. 16, 1856, Helen M. Eattray, born March 2, 
1840. 4. Samnel Watson, born Oct. 22, 1824; married, Oct. 
19, 1865, Mrs. Elizabeth Townsencl, born Dec. 6, 1832, in 
Treble Co., O. 5. Fielding, born Jan. 21, 1827; married, 
Nov. 30, 1865, Mary J. Gallagher, born at Michigan City, 
March 1,1847. 6. Emeline, born June 16, 1829; married, 
June 13, 1854, Horatio N. Lamb, born at Cooperstown, IST. 
Y., June 14,1832. 7. Elizabeth, born July 27, 1831; mar- 
ried, March 27, 1851, Thomas Campbell, born in Center Co., 
Penn., Jan. 13, 1817. 8. Fannie Ann, born Oct. 5, 1833; 
married, March 19, 1857, Oliver Jones, born in Richmond, 
Oct. 6, 1832. Sarah, wife of Jonas Gaar, died i^ov. 8, 1863. 

It is somewhat remarkable that of the eight children of 
Jonas Garr, all are living in Richmond, except Malinda, de- 
ceased, and that none of them has ever lived out of the 
county. And further, that Abraham Gaar, father of Jonas, 
also had eight children, all of whom but one are still living. 

[In the sketch of the family of Abraham Gaar, in Boston, 
his daughter Rosa, widow Ingels, is said to reside with her 
son at Milton. She still resides in Fayette Co., where her 
husband died.] 

Jason Ham was born n Korth Carolina, April 8, 1811, 
and came to Richmond in 1819, with his father, Hezekiah 
Ham, who hired, for one year, the farm of Jeremiah Cox ; 
then bought the farm now or lately owned by Charles Price, 
two miles south of Richmond. After about ten years he sold 
this farm to Alexander Grimes, and bought of Thomas 
Cuppy, in the township of Boston, the farm now owned by 
Joseph M. and Wm. Bulla, where he died, Oct. 10, 1832, 
aged nearly 64 years, having been born l!^ov. 15, 1768. Jason, 
then about 19 years of age, took charge of the farm, and 
taught school in the winter. In 1840, he was appointed col- 
lector of the taxes for that year. In 1841, he was elected 
county treasurer for three years, and removed to Centerville. 
After the expiration of his term of office, he went into the 
mercantile business at Centerville, and continued in it until 
1850, having during this time taken the contracts for building 
the offices of the county clerk, treasurer, auditor, and 
recorder, and of the county poor-house. In 1850, he removed 



420 HISTORY OF WATXE COUNTY. 

to Richmond, and commenced trade on the corner of Main 
and Pearl streets, where the post-office now is, where he 
continued in business most of the time for about ten years, 
having become owner of the property, since known as Ham's 
corner, of which he is still the owner. In 1860, he opened a 
store at Indianapolis ; and on the breaking out of the war, 
sold out and returned to Richmond. Shortly after he was 
appointed by Gov. Morton military agent for the state of In- 
diana, at Louisville, Ky., which office he held until the war 
closed. In 1845, he married Elizabeth Woods, sister of Rev. 
Le Roy Woods. They have a son, Benjamin F. Ham, a law- 
yer, at Little Rock, Arkansas. 

Eleazar Hiatt was born in Guilford Co., N". C., February 
10,1783. He removed from Carolina about the year 1815, 
and after a residence of a few years in Ohio came to Rich- 
mond in the winter of 1818-19, and established a pottery, the 
first, probably, in the county. He was an early justice of the 
peace, and in 1825 a member of the legislature. After a 
residence of several years east of Richmond, he removed to 
Newport, and engaged in the mercantile busiues, about the 
year 1828. (?) About 1838, he removed to a farm he had 
bought near Washington, in Clay township; thence to Ches- 
ter. He married, for his first wife, Anna Williams, from JST. 
C. Their children were : 1. Eliza, who married Jesse Rey- 
nolds, who died of a cancer on the tongue. She married, sec- 
ond, Samuel Hadley, and lives in Morganville, Ind. 2. Jesse, 
formerly merchant in Milton, now in Dublin. [See sketch, 
Washington township.] 3. Daniel W., son of Eleazar Hiatt, 
married, first, Melinda Mendenliall,and lives in Perry; second, 
Gulielma Sanders, of Ohio. 4. Anna Maria, who married 
Isaac Votaw, of JSTew Garden. 

James Farquhar Hibberd, M. D., was born in Frederick Co., 
Md., Nov. 4, 1816, and removed with his parents to Spring- 
boro', Warren Co., O., in 1825; but, in 1826, recrossed the 
Alleghanies, and lived with the family of his uncle, Aaron 
Hibberd, near Martinsburg, Ya. Here he remained until 
1837, when he returned to Springboro' and studied medicine 
with Dr. A. Wright. In the winter of 1839-40 he attended 
the medical department of Yale College, and began the 




*■,>. 




%- iSJ-^V»tf S y 



,^^^7^ A^^^^^^^^^^ 



Cty^ 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 421 

practice of medicine in Salem, Montgomery Co., 0., in the 
summer of 1840. Dr. Hibbercl was a member of the legisla- 
ture of Ohio for the sessions of 1845-6 and 1846-7. The 
winter of 1848-9 was spent in 'New York city, where he 
graduated in the spring of 1849, and immediately accepted 
the surgeoncy of the steamer Senator, which went to Cali- 
fornia in a voyage of seven and a half months, touching at 
the principal South American ports on both the Atlantic and 
Pacific oceans. He traveled largely over California, and re- 
turned to the " States " in 1855, having meanwhile made a 
short visit there in 1853, After a few months in Dayton, 0., 
he settled in the practice of his profession in Richmond, In- 
diana, in October, 1856, and has there continued since. In 
1860, he was appointed Professor of Physiology and General 
Pathology in the Medical College of Ohio, in Cincinnati, but 
resigned after one session's service. In the spring of 1869, 
Dr. II. visited New Orleans, and went thence to New York, 
where he embarked for the Old World, and spent a year in 
traveling over Europe, Asia Minor, Palestine, Egypt, &c. In 
the spring of 1871, he again made a trip to California, visiting 
most of the noted national wonders of that interesting state. 
Dr. II. is, and has long been, an active member of the county, 
state, and national medical societies. 

David P. Hollo way w^as born at Waynesville, O., December 
6, 1809. In 1813, his father removed with his family to Cin- 
cinnati, where they resided until 1823, when they came to 
Wayne township, and settled on the farm now owned by 
John S. Brown, four miles east from Richmond. Two or 
three years after, Mr. Holloway removed to Richmond and 
engaged in the mercantile business. Here his son, David P., 
at the age of about fifteen, commenced his apprenticeship at 
the printer's trade with Edmund S. Buxton, publisher of the 
Public Ledger, and afterward served in the Gazette office at 
Cincinnati. His connection with the newspaper press com- 
menced about the year 1833, as conductor of the liichmond 
Palladium, with which his name has since been connected, 
with j)erhap3 a brief interval of one or two years, until the 
present time, tliough his business has, for the last ten years, 
been in the city of Washington. In 1843, he was elected as 



422 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

a representative in the state legislature, and the next year as 
senator, which office he held for six years. In 1849, he was 
appointed by President Taylor examiner of land offices. la 
1854, he was elected a representative in Congress ; and in 
1861, he was appointed hy President Lincoln commissioner of 
patents, which office he resigned in 1865. Though not a 
practical farmer, he has done much for the improvement of 
agriculture hy personal efforts, hoth in the county and in the 
state legislature. [See Agricultural Societies, pages 111-12.] 
He is now a partner of the firm of Holloway, Mason & Blan- 
chard, attorneys in patent cases, in Washington. Mr. PIol- 
loway was married, j^ov. 13, 1834, to Jane Ann Paulson, who 
died Dec. 8, 1864, aged 52 years. Their children were John 
Marshall, who married Rebecca Gossage, and resides at In- 
dianapolis; William R., who married Eliza Burbank, and is 
postmaster at Indianapolis ; Dayton, who died in 1858 ; Henry 
Clay, who married Emma Jones, and resides at Indianapolis; 
Allen T. ; Charles P.; Sarah; and Mary Ann. 

Jeremiah Hubbard was born in Virginia, Feb. 13, 1777, and 
brought up in Person Co., N. C. He became, while a youth, 
a member of the society of Friends. He was in early life a 
school teacher. Later in life he devoted himself to the work 
of the ministry, traveling in many of the states. In 1837, he 
came to the West, and fiiuilly settled in Richmond. In a 
memorial published by the Whitewater Monthly Meeting, he 
is represented as having evinced a " deep regard for the Holy 
Scriptures," and having, in his preaching, dwelt much upon 
the prominent doctrines of the gospel, and the " necessity of 
sincere and living faith." He died in the neighborhood of 
I^ewport, at the house of his son-in-law, Zeri Hough, Nov. 
23, 1849. 

John S. Lyle, from Rockbridge Co., Virginia, came to 
Richmond in 1823, with his father, David Lyle, who was a 
brick and stone mason, and who subsequently removed to 
Randolph Co., where he died in 1848. John, his eldest son, 
resides in Richmond. In 1837, he commenced an apprentice- 
ship in the printing business with Holloway and Davis, and 
worked at this trade twelve years. In 1855, he was elected 
justice of the peace for the term of four years, and re-elected 



CITY OF RICUMOND. '' 423 

for a second term. Before the expiration of liis second term, 
the war broke out, and he assisted in raising Co. B. of the 
5th Indiana cavahy, of which he was chosen captain. In 
November, 1862, he was promoted to senior njajor of the 
regiment. lie served in the army to the close of the war. 
He was with his battalion in Kentucky, Avithin twenty 
miles of the rebel Gen. Morgan when he crossed the Cumber- 
land river on his famed raid through Kentucky, Indiana, and 
Ohio, and followed him up with his regiment until he was 
taken at Buffington Bar, Ohio, where Morgan's forces were 
routed. Major Lyle was engaged in the two battles of 
Blountsville, and the battles of Knoxville, Henderson's Mills, 
Walker's Ford, Pulaski, and the great battle of Nashville. 
He is at present city attorney in Richmond. 

James li. Mendeniiall was born in Randolph Co., iST. C, 
July 3, 1795. While yet a child, his parents removed to 
South Carolina; and in 1816 to the vicinity of Richmond. 
About a year afterward, he went to Vevay to study medicine 
with his brother, and while reading there, attended one course 
of medical lectures in Cincinnati. In 1822, he returned to 
Riclimond and Ijcgan practice ; and after over a year's prac- 
tice, he attended a course of lectures in the medical depart- 
ment of Transylvania University, in Lexington, Kentucky, 
where he graduated in the spring of 1824, and returned to 
Richmond, being the first physician in the county liaving a 
diploma. In 1830, his failing health unfitting him for the 
arduous labors required of the profession in those early times, 
he removed to Liberty, Union Co., and engaged in mercantile 
business. He represented that county in the legislature at 
the session of 1833-4. In 1833, he returned to Richmond, 
and engaged in milling. He was a stockholder in the " Rich- 
mond Manufacturing Company," and was afterward inter- 
ested in the old Richmond Foundry, on South Green street. 
After the failure of that establishment, he took control of the 
paper mill, in 1843, and continued in that business until 1854. 
After that time he was engaged in various mercantile pur- 
suits to the time of his death. He was several times a mem- 
ber of the town council, school trustee, a member of the 
board of health, and in 1837 was elected first burgess of the 



424 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

towu. He was, in 1840, a delegate to the Ilarrisburg conven- 
tion which nominated Gen. Harrison for president. He was 
afterward an associate jndge. Dr. M. was one of the first 
directors of the Indiana Central Railroad, and was the first 
man to ride over the railroad bridge at Richmond, occupying 
a seat on the front of the locomotive, which bore his name. 
He was also for ten years president of the Fort "Wayne and 
Richmond Railroad Company, and retired from tliat po>ition 
in 1806. He joined the Masonic fraternity while residing at 
Vcvay, and was made a Royal Arch Mason and Sir Knight 
while at the University in Kentucky ; and was one of the 
applicants for the first charter granted for a council in Indi- 
ana. He died February 18, 1870, and was buried with the 
usual masonic ceremonies, conducted by the Kniglits Templar. 
Dr. Mendenhall was married, in 1824, to Lydia "Wright, 
daughter of John Wright, an early merchant of Richmond. 
She lived but a few months after her marriage. He after- 
ward married Sarah T. Williams, a daughter of Jesse Will- 
iams, and sister of Achilles Williams, of this city. She re- 
sides in Richmond. 

Robert Morrisson was born October 19, 1786, in Xorth 
Carolina, whither his parents had emigrated from Chester 
Co., Pa. He married Jane Price, and, in 1810, removed to 
TVayne Co., Indiana. Having made no purchase of land be- 
fore his arrival, and having, consequently, not even a cabin 
of his own, he took temporary shelter in an outhouse made 
of logs, belonging to his brother-in-law, Jeremiah Cox, and 
not designed at all as a dwelling. He soon settled north of 
Middleboro', just within the bounds of the present town- 
ship of Franklin. He resided there a few years ; but, unable 
to endure the hard labor of clearing a new farm, he sold his 
farm, and, with a few hundred dollars, made his second ad- 
vent in the place where he spent the remainder of a long 
life. "With a small stock of goods, he commenced the mer- 
cantile business on the corner of Main and Xorth Front 
streets. His name is- intimately associated with the history 
of Richmond. Being one of its earliest merchants, he rode 
on the tide of its growing commerce, and with his frugality, 
prudence, and business talent, accumulated a large estate, 
and retired from mercantile business before the town had at- 






■' y 



(s) 




CITY OF RICHMOND. 425 

tained a high degree of commercial importance. "When bank- 
ing houses were established in Richmond, he invested 
largely in bank stocks, being the owner of one-third of the 
stock in the Citizens' Bank. He had also a connection with 
the branches of the State Banks, in Richmond. Though 
rich, he was a friend to the poor. With his declining years 
his benevolence seemed to increase. A portion of his in- 
come went to the relief of the needy and suffering. His 
alms being unostentatiously bestowed, their amount was not 
generally known. The war of the rebellion opened a new 
field for the exercise of Christian philanthropy ; and prob- 
ably no man in Richmond contributed more liberally than he. 
Being a life-long member of the society of Friends, he was 
careful not to compromise his long-cherished peace prin- 
ciples. The crowning act of his life was the founding of a 
library, at a cost of ^20,000, which he transferred as a gift to 
Wayne township, Richmond included, provision having been 
made for its perpetuation. It is placed under the control of 
a library committee, and kept by a competent lady librarian. 
He barely lived to see this splendid gift executed and the library 
building completed. A life-size portrait painting of the donor 
was placed in the public reception room of the building, and 
paid for by contributions of citizens without his knowledge. 
The former township librarj' has been merged in this, 
which is now probably the largest township library in the 
state. A few years before his death his general health be- 
gan to fail; and he was prevented from mingling with his 
fellow-citizens, and from meeting with his friends in the 
house of worship. In the latter part of the summer of 1865, 
he was seized with violent illness, which soon terminated his 
life. He died Sept. 12, 1865, aged nearly 79 years. A large 
number of friends, relatives, and citizens followed his re- 
mains to the Friends' Cemetery, three miles east from Rich- 
mond. His wife died Aug. 17, 1849, aged nearly 63 years. 

Robert Morrisson had three children : 1. Hannah, who 
died in 1828, at the age of 20, just after her return from 
Westtown, Pa., boarding-school. 2. Jonathan, who died in 
infancy. 3. James L., who succeeded to the estate and busi- 
ness of his father, as a partner in the banking firm of Mor- 



426 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

risson, Blanchard & Co. He has two cliildren: Robert, of 
the lirm of Plummer & Morrisson, wholesale druggists ; and 
Elizabeth Jaue. 

Samuel E. Perkins was born at Brattleborough, Yt., De- 
cember 6, 1811. He removed with his father to Conway, 
Mass., where he resided until 1834. He removed to Penn 
Yan, Yates Co., IsT. Y., and studied law with Henry Welles, 
now or lately a judge of the supreme court of that state, and 
removed to Richmond, and was admitted to the practice of 
law in 1837. He was subsequently appointed prosecuting at- 
torney by the governor of the state. In 1844, he was a can- 
didate for presidential elector on the Democratic electoral 
ticket. In January, 1846, he was appointed by Gov. White- 
head judge of the supreme court; was reappointed, and held 
the othce until January, 1865. In 18 — , he removed to In- 
dianapolis. About tlie year 1859, he was elected Professor of 
Law in the North-western University at Indianapolis, which 
office he held about six years. In the autumn of 1870, he 
was chosen Professor of Law in the State University at 
Bloomington. He married, in Richmond, Amanda J. Pyle, 
daughter of Joseph Pyle. They had nine children, only two 
of whom are living: Amanda, who married Oscar B. Ilord; 
and Samuel E., now a partner in law. Judge Perkins mar- 
ried a second wife, Mrs. Lavinia M. Wiggins, a sister of his 
former wife, by whom he had a daughter, Alma Rosa, now 
living. 

James Perry was born in Madisonville, Ohio, January 19, 
1799. He removed, when about five years of age, with his 
father to Kentucky. In 1823, he removed to Liberty, Union 
Co., Ind. ; and was admitted to the practice of law in 1824. 
In 1840, he was elected judge of the judicial district com- 
posed of the counties of Union, Fayette, Rush, Decatur, 
Henry, and Wayne. At the expiration of the term of his office 
as judge, he removed to Richmond, where he still continues 
the practice of his profession. He was married in 1824 to 
Elizabeth Snow, in Union county. They had two sons : 
Rufus, who was born in 1832, and drowned at Centerville, at 
the age of 17 years ; and Oran, noticed below. 

Oran Perry was born at Liberty, Union Co., Ind., Feb- 







,.,,, -^'^■^ 




z^^^ J^^rr?y. 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 427 

ruary 1, 1838, and removed with his father to Richmond in 
1844. He enlisted, April 9, 1861, in Co. B, Sixteenth Regi- 
ment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, for one year; was ap- 
pointed sergeant-major in Jane ; served his term, and was 
discharged. He was commissioned adjutant of the Sixty- 
ninth Regiment; was in the battle of Richmond, Ky., where 
his horse was shot from under him, and he was wounded in 
the leg and captured; was paroled, and afterward excVianged. 
He was also in the battles of Chickasaw Blulf and Arkansas 
Post, and promoted to lieutenant-colonel. He was afterward 
in the battles of Thompson's Hill, Champion Hill, Black 
River Bridge, Vicksburg, Jackson, Miss. ; in the several ex- 
peditions of Teche River, Texas, Red River, and Pascagoula, 
and the assault on the works of Fort Blakely, Alabama, in 
the last of which he received a severe wound in the head ; 
after which he was promoted to brevet colonel, having com- 
manded the regiment more than two years. He served until 
July, 1865, when the regiment was mustered out of service. 
He was married May 16, 1866, to Jennie Poe, daughter of 
James M. Poe, Esq., of Richmond. He is now proprietor of 
the Richmond Plow "Works. 

Joseph Pemberton Plummer was born in Anne Arundel 
Co., Md., Oct. 4, 1783. He married Susanna Husband, who 
died, leaving four children, a son and three daughters. In 
1819, he married Lydia Husband, and removed with his 
family to Cincinnati, and in 1823 to Richmond. He built a 
two-story frame dwelling, with store-room attached, on the 
south-east corner of Main and Front streets, and engaged in 
mercantile business. In 1824, he purchased a grist-mill, and 
in 1825 he built an addition to it for the manufacture of oil 
from castor beans; but sold all in 1827, and confined his at- 
tention to his store. In 1834, he purchased and moved upon 
the farm now owned by Mark E. Reeves. Having lost his 
second wife by death, he returned to town to live with his 
children, two of whom, John T. Plummer and Joanna P. 
Laws, were then living here. With one or the other of these 
he resided until his death, Sept. 20, 1868. He was an active 
business man, a good citizen, and regardful of his social and 
domestic duties. He refrained almost entirely from connec- 



428 HISTORY OF "WAYNE COUNTY. 

tion with political and other associations, content with the 
influence of an exemplary life upon those with whom he had 
daily intercourse. He was for many years an honored min- 
ister in the society of Friends, and an active member until 
his activities were impaired by his bodily infirmities, which 
kept him at home during the last two years of his life. His 
children, all by his first wife, were : 1. John T. [Sk.] 2. 
Mary M., who married William Owen, and is deceased. 3. 
Joanna P., who married John M. Laws, an early watch- 
maker and jeweler, and afterward for many years a merchant 
in Richmond. 4. Sarah C, who married Wm. Bancroft, and 
died in Philadelphia in 1856. 

John Thomas Plummer was born in Montgomery county, 
Md., March 12, 1807, and removed with his father to Cincin- 
nati in 1819, and thence, in 1823, to Richmond, where he re- 
sided until his death, April 10, 1865. He commenced the 
study of medicine in his eighteenth year, and graduated from 
Yale College just before he had attained his majority. As 
a physician, he was much beloved and popular, notwithstand- 
ing his extreme aversion to the means often used to gain 
popularity. He continued in practice until within a short 
time of his decease. In the spring of 1833, he was married 
to Hannah Wright, of Springboro', Warren county, Ohio, 
who died in 1836, leaving a son. In the fall of 1887, Dr. 
Plummer married for his second wife, Sarah 0. Pierce, of 
Portsmouth, IS". H., who, with two sons, still survives him. 
Dr. P. early became a close and successful student. An in- 
timate friend of his, himself a man of science, wrote of him 
after his death, as follows: 

"He obtained, by his ovvn exertions, a good, nay, a critical 
knowledge of the English language ; studied Latin, Greek, 
and Hebrew of the dead, and French and German of the 
living languages, and acquired some knowledge of several 
others. He was the personal friend and correspondent of 
Noah Webster, and assisted him with some western words in 
the preparation of his dictionary. 

"Dr. Plummer's acquirements were general and profound. 
He was a naturalist, not a mere amateur or theorist, but an 
active and practical one, applying his knowledge to the 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 429 

investigations of his surronndings, giving whatever was new 
and interesting to the world through the scientific periodicals, 
more particularly SillimanV, Journal, hetween the editor of 
which and himself there existed a warm personal friendship. 
His cabinet of specimens and preparations was at one time 
large, thoroughly classified, and of especial value as illustrat- 
ing the several departments of natural science as they were 
developed in his immediate neighborhood. During the latter 
years of his life, his impaired health unfitted him for exer- 
cises of this kind; and he distributed his collections to 
schools and to other places where he thought them likely to 
do most good. 

" While all branches of medical science received his care- 
ful attention, chemistry and pharmacy were his favorites. 
The Journal of Pharmacy will testify to some of his labors in 
the latter direction ; and as a chemist, theoretical and prac- 
tical, not only as chemistry is applied to medicine, but gener- 
all}', it is doubted whether he had a superior outside of those 
who are devoted to chemistry as a special profession." 

He was editor of the Schoolmaster^ a paper published by 
Holloway & Davis during the year 1839, and author of one or 
two Headers for Friends' schools. His writings upon agricul- 
tural, educational, and scientific subjects, other than that of his 
profession, were numerous, and inspired by a desire to ad- 
vance the interests of his fellow-men. Devoting so much of 
his time to his profession and to scientific and literary studies, 
he had little time and less inclination to take part in public 
business, although he was for a short time a stockholder in the 
Richmond Gas Light and Coke Company, and its first presi- 
dent. While he had decided views on political questions, and 
inculcated, with his voice and his pen, the principles of hu- 
manity, temperance, and general benevolence, he stood aloof 
from parties and organizations, as tending, in his opinion, to 
give a wrong bias to the convictions and actions of men. And 
he conscientiously refused to participate in any political move- 
ments, or cast a vote for any candidate who, if elected, might 
be required to use force in the discharge of his ofiicial duties. 
We quote again from his friend : 



430 HISTORY OF AVAYNE COUNTY. 

"Born into the society of Friends, he continued a con- 
sistent member until death. Without being a shave to the dis- 
cipline of the society or a bigot to its tenets, he held his duty 
to liis Maker and his feilow-man through its organization 
paramount to all other duty. His Christian life was not an 
idle one, but of active and efficient labor in whatever capacity 
he was called to act. Perhaps no man among the Friends was 
more thoroughly versed, in a knowledge of the size, the prog- 
ress, and the principles of their sect ; and it was all brought 
into use to advance the welfare of the society and the world. 
This made him one of the most influential members of the 
society. ISTor was his Christianity confined to the church and 
its associations; but all his acts were performed as his con- 
victions of Christian duty dictated. 

"His opposition to public show or exhibition of any kind 
was carried almost, if not quite, to eccentricity ; and this senti- 
ment was, doubtless, combined with others, the cause of his 
several times declining tendered professorships in medical 
schools, and leading positions in other educational institutions, 
as well as of deterring him from uniting with or attending formal 
medical organizations that held public meetings." 

It is proper to add, that Dr. Plummer rendered a valuable 
service to the public by the writing and publishing of " A 
Historical Sketch," in connection with his " Directory to the 
City of Richmond," which appeared in 1857. The timely pub- 
lication of this little book has rescued from oblivion many 
interesting facts and reminiscences of early times, which can 
not now be obtained from any other source. John T. Plum- 
mer had five children: By his first wife, Jonathan W., of the 
firm of Plummer & Morrisson, wholesale druggists, Richmond. 
By his second wife: Charles P., still living; Joseph P., who 
died of cholera in 1849 at the age of 9 years ; Wm. S., who died 
in 1863, aged 16; and James, still living. 

James M. Poe was born in Maryland, November 12, 1811, 
where he was married to Matilda Chandler, with whom and 
one child, he came to Richmond in 1838. He soon commenced 
teaching school, in which business he was engaged about ten 
years ; first, in a house at or near the Public Square, and after- 
ward in the basement of the old frame Methodist meeting- 




^C^^^^ge^ 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 431 

house on Pearl street. He was elected a justice of the peace 
in 1846, but continued teaching during the first two years of 
his official term. He was elected for a second term, at the ex- 
piration of which, in 1855, he declined a re-election. In 1863, 
he was again elected to the office of justice, and re-elected in 
1867; and before the expiration of the term, he was elected 
in 1871, Mayor of the city, which office he now holds. 
He was for many years a notary public, and has been for 
about twenty years a real estate agent. In connection with 
others he has bought lands near and adjoining the town. 
Those on the south side, designated as "Poe andHittel's addi- 
tion," have been annexed to the city. Mr. Poe became a mem- 
ber of the Pearl Street Methodist church soon after his removal 
to Richmond, and has for nearly twenty years served alternately 
as superintendent and assistant superintendent of its Sabbath- 
school. He has four children : Margaret, wife of James J. 
Russell J Jennie, wife of Oran Perry ; Sarah Ellen, and Amanda 
Bell. 

Mark E. Reeves, son of Mark Reeves, came from New 
Jersey to Richmond, in 1823, with his father, who was by trade 
a carpenter. The father being partially enfeebled by ill-healthy 
it was necessary for the son to commence labor at an early age ; 
and he was employed in the brick-yard of Wm. Cox, He next 
served temporarily as clerk in the stores of John Wright and 
Robert Morrisson. In 1824, Mr. AVright opened a store at 
Milton, conducted by his brother, Wm. Wright, and em- 
ployed young Reeves as a clerk in that store. In 1826, he re- 
turned to Richmond, and was employed as clerk in the store 
of Robert Morrisson and Joseph P. Strattan [J. P. Strattan 
& Co.] In 1827, he went to Liberty as a clerk for Mr. Morris- 
son, who established a branch store at that place. In Decem- 
ber, 1830, at the age of about 19, he commenced the mercantile 
business at Washington, now Clay township, with a capital of 
about $1,000 in goods, bought principally of Robert Morrisson 
on credit, and remained there about ten years. In 1836, Mark 
and his brother James bought the goods of J. C. Hawkins & 
Son, at Hagerstown, and James took the charge of this estab- 
lishment. In 1840, James left the concern, and established 
a store in Richmond, and Mark removed to Hagerstown, con- 



432 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

tinuing an interest in the store at "Washington, in partnership 
with James W. Scott, for about five years. In 1847, Mark at 
Hagerstown, and James at Richmond, both discontinued busi- 
ness, and went to Cincinnati, where they continued trade, in 
partnership, until 1855. James then returned to Richmond; 
and his brother has retained an interest in a large mercantile 
estabUshment in that city to the present time. In 1853, he 
purchased tlie residence and farm of the late Joseph P. Plum- 
mer near the cit}^ to which he removed, and where he now 
resides, in the possession of a fortune acquired, not by luck 
in a few random speculations, but by a long course of prudent 
management, and close attention to business. It is said to 
have been at least an im^ilied condition on which credit was 
obtained for his first goods, that he should practice due fru- 
gality in expenses. The young debtor, following the coun- 
sels of his former employer and exemplar, took board for 
himself and his brother James, his clerk, at 56j cents per 
week, they furnishing their own bed, which was made on the 
store counter. The examples of Morrisson and Reeves should 
not be without their influence upon young men of the pres- 
ent time, many of whom make sad failures in attempts to ac- 
quire fortunes in a few large and hazardous operations. Mr. 
Reeves was married, first, to Julia Pretlow, of Virginia, by 
whom he had a son, Charles P. ; and after her death, to Caro- 
line Middleton, and had by her two children, Mary T. and 
Arthur Middleton. 

James E. Reeves, also a son of Mark Reeves, came when a 
small boy to Richmond. His business life, so intimately con- 
nected with that of his brother, has been in great part already 
sketched in the foregoing notice. On his return from Cin- 
cinnati to Richmond, in 1855, he purchased of Robert Mor- 
risson the farm now owned by Wm. Baxter, on the west side 
of East Fork, near the city. In 1863, he commenced the 
banking business in the city, being one of the association 
which established the First National Bank, of which he has 
been its president to the present time. His business habits 
and capacity, being similar to those of his brother, have also 
been attended with success. He was married, first, to Isa- 
bella Cornell, of Philadelphia, and after her death, to Mrs. 



.";a-* " SJ-^' 




.^' 



sw' 




// 




CITY OF RICHMOND. 433 

Hannah Ireland, of Peoria, Illinois. He has, by his first 
marriage, a sou, James Franklin, at present cashier of the 
First National Bank in Richmond ; by the second, a son, 
William P. 

Daniel Peid was born in Pockbridge county, Va., Febru- 
ary 5, 1799. He married Letitia Scott, and in 1821 removed 
to Ohio, near j^ew Paris, Avhere he engaged in teaching 
school. In October, 1823, he removed to Richmond, and en- 
gaged as a merchant's clerk for James McGuire, and after- 
ward for Robert Morrisson. About the year 1827 or 1828, 
he commenced business for himself, with Joseph P. Strattan. 
He was engaged alternately in trade and farming until 1838. 
In 1829, he was appointed postmaster, and held the office 
until 1836. In 1838, he was appointed by President Van 
Buren register of the land office at Fort Wayne. He re- 
turned to this county in 1855, and settled on a farm a mile 
and a half west of Richmond, where he now resides. He 
was an early member and ruling elder of the United Presby- 
terian church in Richmond, which office he holds at the 
present time. Mr. Reid had seven children : 1. William S. 
[Sk.] 2. Mary Ann, who died at 3. 3. Mary Ann, who mar- 
ried Franklin P. Randolph, a lawyer, of Fort Wayne. 4. 
James P., who married Anna Reid, and lives in Wayne town- 
ship. 5. Margaret Jane, unmarried. 6. Hannah M., who 
died of cholera in 1833. 7. Robert M., who emigrated to 
California in 1852. Mrs. Reid died September 3, 1854; and 
in October, 1856, Mr. Reid was joined in marriage to Mrs. 
Ann Dougan, then living at Niles, Mich., a daughter of 
Isaac Grray, an early settler in Richmond. 

Wm. S. Reid, son of Daniel Reid, was born in Rockbridge 
county, Va., December 10, 1818. He removed with his 
father's family to Preble county, Ohio, in 1822 ; and in 1823 
to Richmond. He married May 7, 1839, Sarah Jane Mansur, 
by whom he had nine children, of whom only Sarah M., Clara 
M., and Mansur C, are living. Mr. Reid was for a time a 
clerk in the land office at Fort Wayne ; on a farm in Allen 
county about twelve years ; in the dry goods trade in Rich- 
mond three years ; and for several years in the pork-packing 
business, in which, as one of the firm of Vanneman, Reid & 
30 



434 HISTOKY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Co., he still continues. He was also for a number of years, 
with C. C. Beeler, engaged in the grocery trade, which they 
discontinued in 1870. 

John Sailor was born in the city of Philadelphia, ISToveni- 
ber 23, 1781. He is said to have been by trade a cabinet- 
maker, but carried on the business of coach-making. In the 
year 1811, he became a member of the Presbyterian church, 
and in 1812 a ruling elder, which office he held until he 
left the city, in 1831, and removed to Richmond. At 
the first election under the borough charter, in 1834, he was 
elected first burgess, the head and presiding officer of the city 
council. In 1840, Richmond was incorporated as a city, and 
Mr. Sailor was elected mayor, and held the office by successive 
annual elections until January, 1852; and although he had a 
limited education, the duties of the office were discharged 
faithfully and conscientiously, as well as with general accept- 
ance. In 1854, he removed to Griggsville, Pike county, 
Illinois, where his wife died the next year. In 1865, he 
united with the Baptist church, of which he is still a member. 
In the summer of 1871, he met with an accident, by which 
he came near losing his life. Having been in early life a 
sailor, and used to climbing, he fearlessly ascended by a ladder 
into a cherry tree, unseen by any other person, and was soon 
after found lying on the ground under the tree in an uncon- 
scious state, and badly bruised, having fallen from the tree, 
the lowest limbs of which were eight feet from the ground. 

Andrew F. Scott was born in Rockbridge county, Va., De- 
cember 28, 1811 ; came to Wayne county in 1834; taught 
school one term three miles south of Richmond, and in the 
fall of that year engaged as clerk for Daniel Reid in his store 
and the post-office, in Richmond, and continued there five 
years. In 1839, he went to Fort Wayne, and served as clerk 
one year under Mr. Reid, who was then register of the 
United. States land office at that place, and one year under 
James W. Borden, receiver. In 1841, he returned to Rich- 
mond, and served as deputy under Sheriff Wm. Baker one 
year, and next as clerk in the store of Jesse Meek about 
three years. He tlien became interested in the business of a 
steamboat company on the Ohio river, and served as its clerk 
for two years. In 1847, he returned to Richmond, and car- 



CITY OP RICHMOND. 435 

ried on the mercantile business four years. In 1851, he was 
elected clerk of Wayne county, and re-elected in 1855, in 
which office he served eight years, residing during his clerk- 
ship at Centerville. In 1860, he again removed to Richmond, 
and was engaged in farming about five years, and a part of 
that time also in merchandising and building, having, in 1862, 
erected the brick block on the north-west corner of Main and 
Fifth streets. In July, 1865, he was made clerk of the Rich- 
mond Fire Insurance Company, and served as such during its 
existence of about a year and a half. In 1867, he associated 
with James Forkner and C. N". Elmer, [firm, Forkner, Scott & 
Elmer,] in the wholesale grocery trade, in Richmond, in which 
he has continued till the present time. In 1839, he was mar- 
ried to Martha McGlathery. They had four children : Letitia 
A., who married Joseph Mcl^utt, and died in 1863; John, 
who died in infancy ; Augustus C, who resides at home ; and 
Mary E., wife of John M. Tennis, agent for the Erie Railway 
Company, residing at Memphis, Tennessee. 

Caleb Shearon was born in Pennsylvania, February 29, 1778 ; 
came to Richmond in 1820. He was a hatter, and brought 
with him his shop fi.xtures. The roads being very bad, and 
hat trimmings light, he went for a time on foot to Cincinnati, 
and carried back his stock. He was successful in business, and 
accumulated a handsome property, as has been elsewhere 
stated. He was a stockholder in the first bank in Richmond, 
in the first turnpike company, and in the first railroad com- 
pany, and a director in each of them. He was married, in 
1819, to Elizabeth Chalfant. His children were: Thomas H., 
who married Rachel, a daughter of James Thompson ; Will- 
iam, who married Sarah J., and Warner, who married Rachel 
L., daughters of Nathan Rambo ; Oliver II., who married 
Elizabeth, daughter of Joseph Overman, of Center; and Ruth 
Ann, wife of John D. Wiggins. Caleb Shearon died Janu- 
ary 28, 1854. The wife of Thomas H. died December 9, 1870. 
Oliver H. removed a few years since to Kansas. 

John Smith was born in North Carolina, and was one of 
the pioneer settlers of Richmond in the year 1806. As an 
early settler, as the first merchant, and as the fi.rst proprietor 
of the town, he has been noticed. He settled in what is now 



436 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

the south part of the city, west from the public square, where, 
in 1811 or 1812, he built the house now owned by Jeremiah 
Hadley, the first brick house built in the town, and probably 
the first in the county. He was married, in North Carolina, to 
Letitia Trueblood, who died about the year 1813, and by whom 
he had five sons, Robert, Caleb, Nathan, John, and Samuel 
W., the last of whom was for a time a merchant in Richmond ; 
and six daughters : Mary, who was married to Thomas Nixon; 
Sarah, to Thomas Lamb; Pennina, to Jesse Symonds; Eliza- 
beth, to Stephen Holloway ; Nancy, to Daniel Trimble; Gu- 
lielma, to Joseph Meek, of Abington. After the death of his 
wife he married, about the year 1818, Mrs. Jane Pleas, of 
Ohio, by whom he had a daughter, Esther, who married Jere- 
miah Hadley, and died Nov. 29, 1861. Mr. Hadley has been 
for many years a citizen of Richmond, and is at present, and 
has for several years been, the treasurer of the city school 
funds. 

Charles W. Starr was born at Philadelphia, Feb. 28, 1792, 
and was married to Elizabeth Wilson, of Chester Co., Pa., 
who was born Feb. 14, 1798. In the year 1825, he removed 
with his small family to Richmond, and the next year bought 
the farm of Jeremiah Cox, lying on the north side of Main 
street and extending to the East Fork. Cox had laid out lots 
east to Marion street, including the tier east side, and north 
to the first alley south of Sassafras street. The farm con- 
tained about 240 acres, and embraced all the lands bought by 
Cox north of Main street, except the part lying between the 
east bounds of the lots laid out on Marion [Street and the 
river. The name of Charles W. Starr is intimately connected 
with the history of Richmond. His large farm, on which have 
been erected most of the finer class of dwellings, and nearly 
all the large manufacturing establishments of the city, was all 
laid out into lots. The value of lots sold before and since his 
decease is upward of $320,000, leaving still unsold lots of the 
value of about $60,000. He was an enterprising, energetic 
business man, and contributed largely to the improvement and 
prosperity of the town. He was an extensive house-builder. 
He erected a large number of buildings — business houses and 
dwellings. Among the former was a row on Main street, on 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 437 

and west of the corner of Franklin, where the First ^N'ational 
Bank stands ; also, the Tremont House, on the north-east cor- 
ner of Main and Fifth streets. He also built, about the year 
1831, a cotton factory, just above the Williamsburg turnpike 
bridge, and run it a few years. He was highly esteemed as a 
citizen, and was a member of the society of Friends. He died 
May 1, 1855, having bequeathed his large estate to his wife — 
an evidence of his confidence in her ability to manage and dis- 
pose of it. The children of Charles and Elizabeth Starr were : 
1. John, who died in infancy. 2. William C, who married 
Anna M. Chipman, and resides on jSTinth street. 3. James M., 
who married Lydia C. Briggs, of Cincinnati, who died about 
three years after her marriage, leaving a daughter, who died 
soon after. He married, second, Sarah Jane King, a daughter 
of Levinus King. 4, 5. Mary and Samuel ; both died in in- 
fancy. 6. Hannah A., wife of IN'oah S. Leeds, a merchant in 
Richmond. 7. Lydia W., who died at 19. 8. i^athan H., who 
married Clura Gustin, at Middletown, Henry Co., where they 
reside. 9. Joseph W., who married Alida Burr, of North 
Bend, Ohio. 10. Benjamin, who married Josephine Iredell, 
who died in 1868. He resides in Richmond. 

Ithamar Warner, native of N'ew England, and for several 
years a physician at Salisbury until after the removal of the 
county seat from that town, came to Richmond about the year 
1820. He was unmarried, and boarded several years with Robert 
Morrisson. He soon acquired an extensive practice, and in 
time accumulated a handsome fortune, of which, at his decease, 
he bequeathed the principal part to the town of Richmond. 
The brick building on North Pearl street, near the Citizens* 
Bank, known as the "Warner Building," was a donation. 
The citizens have erected an appropriate monument over his 
grave. He died in March, 1835, aged about 52 years. He 
was never married. 

John Macamy Wasson, son of Archibald Wasson, was born 
in Wayne township, in the year 1810. His early years were 
spent on the farm of his father, with whom, in 1829, he re- 
moved to Richmond. He was married to Anna, a daughter 
of Josiah Moore, an early settler about two miles south-east 
from Richmond. She was born in 1813. While a resident of 



438 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Richmond, he worked several years at the wagon-making busi- 
ness. He afterward resided at Weill's Station, where he was 
postmaster from 1857 to 1859; and at Chester, where he held 
the same office from 1861 to 1864. He also resided two years 
at the town of Washington, whence he removed, in March, 
1870, to Richmond, where he now resides. He commenced, 
several years ago, the collection of materials for a History of 
Wayne County, and had gathered many facts relating to the 
early settlement of Wayne township, including the city of 
Richmond, some of which are embodied in this work. Al- 
though he did not proceed to the completion of the con- 
templated history, the project seems to have originated with 
him. The children of Macamy and Anna Wasson were : 1. 
Ehzabeth, who died in 1844, at the age of 4 years. 2. Thomas 
J., who enlisted, for the late war, in the 19th (Col. Solomon 
Meredith's) Regiment; was wounded at the battle of Gales- 
borough, and taken to the hospital at Philadelphia. After his 
recovery he rejoined his regiment, and was killed in the battle 
of Gettysburg, in the first day's engagement, July 1, 1863. 3. 
Sarah Ann, wife of David Beedle. 4. William H., who en- 
listed, in 1863, in the 9th Cavalry, 121st Indiana Regiment; 
served two years, and was regularly discharged. 5. Albert C, 
who resides in Kansas, and is married. 6, 7. Mary and Eliza. 
Daniel P. Wiggins was born on Long Island, N. Y., JS'ov. 
23, 1794. He married Phebe Dodge, who was born Sept. 2, 
1796. In 1823, he removed with his family to Richmond. 
Being by trade a tanner, he was employed by Robert Morris- 
son to take the charge of his tannery, and a few years after 
was admitted as a partner. After a partnership of several 
years, he, with several of his sons, purchased the tannery built 
by John Smith. About the year 1851, he retired from the 
concern and all active business, with more than a competence, 
the reward of honest, persevering industry and prudent man- 
agement. He resides with his estimable wife, at a pleasant 
country seat in the suburbs of the city. They are exemplary 
members of the society of Friends, with which they united 
since their settlement in Richmond. They had eleven 
children: 1. William, who was born Oct. 2, 1814; mar- 
ried Emma Pyle, a daughter of Joseph Pyle, and died March 





{IC-tytil^^^ c^ 



^7 




tj- 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 439 

29, 1855. 2. Henry D., born Oct. 16, 1816; married Lavinia 
Pyle, sister of Emma, and died April 4, 1842. She married, 
second, Judge Samuel E. Perkins, now of Indianapolis. 3. 
Andress S., born Aug. 15, 1818, married Rebecca Boswell, and 
lives near Hagerstown. 4. Stephen R., born April 12, 1820, 
married Belitha Ann Hunnicutt, and resides in Richmond. 5. 
Charles 0., born May 23, 1822, married Mary Thatcher. 6. 
John D., born July 26, 1824, married Ruth Shearon. 7. Phile- 
mon F., born Sept. 16, 1826; married, first, Mary Burr, of 
Ohio, and after her death, Henrietta, daughter of George Mc- 
Culloch. 8. Mary EUzabeth, born Oct. 18, 1828, married 
George W. Barnes, and died Oct. 28, 1862. 9. Samuel B., 
born March 6, 1831 ; married Virginia Van Zant. 10. Sarah 
Ann, born August 19, 1833; married Wm. P. Benton, and 
died Feb. 23, 1861. He was a collector of United States rev- 
enue at Kew Orleans, where he died, March 12, 1867. 11. 
Daniel P., born Sept. 20, 1835 ; died Feb. 14, 1855. 

Jesse Williams was born January 13, 1753. He married, 
first, Eleanor Johnson, by whom he had four children : John, 
Hannah, Esther, and Caleb. After the death of his wife he 
married Sarah Terrell, of Lynchburg, Va. He afterward re- 
moved with his family to North Carolina, where he resided 
many years, and then [1814] removed to Ohio, and in 1820 to 
Richmond, where he died in 1833, and his wife the same year. 
They had four sons and three daughters : Micajah T. ; Achil- 
les ; Robert, who died in Richmond in 1822 ; Jesse L., who is 
married, and resides at Fort Wayne ; Anna, wife of Dr. 
Thomas Carroll, of Cincinnati ; Sarah T., widow of Dr. James 
R. Mendenhall, and resides in Richmond ; and Eliza, wife of 
John L. Burgess, of Dublin, Ind. Micajah T. came to Cin- 
cinnati as early as 1812, and died there in 1844. He was, while 
there, associated with Ephraim Morgan in publishing the West- 
ern Spy; a member of the legislature of Ohio; and president 
of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company. His widow 
now resides with her son, Alfred K. Williams, on her place in 
Richmond; 

Achilles Williams, son of Jesse Williams, was born in 
Graysou, now Carroll county, Virginia, September 23, 1795. 
He removed, when young, with his father's family to Guilford 



440 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Co., N. C, to which place his grandfather had removed with 
his family from Maryland, in 1851 or 1852. In 1814, the 
family removed to Cincinnati. After a brief visit to this 
place, [now Richmond,] in June, and a few months' sojourn 
at Waynesville, Ohio, the next yeixr [1815] he returned in the 
fall to the South, and was married to Beulah Unthank. In 
1817, he removed to Warren Co., 0., and in the fall of 1818 
to Richmond, and resumed his occupation — that of saddler — 
he being the first of that trade in the town — and continued 
the business for many years. He then entered into an un- 
fortunate partnership in establishing and carrying on a 
foundry, the first in the place. The business was most dis- 
astrous to him. After giving up all his effects to his credit- 
ors, he was still largely in debt. In 1829, he was elected 
county commissioner, which office he held several years. He 
was elected as a representative in the legislature for the ses- 
sion of 1837-38, and as a senator for the three succeeding ses- 
sions. After the election of President Harrison, he was ap- 
pointed postmaster at Richmond, but was superseded under 
Tyler. In 1844, he was elected county treasurer, and by re- 
elections continued in that ofiice eleven years. Although the 
ofiS.ce was then far less lucrative than now, it enabled him, by 
proper frugality and economy, to cancel all the debts growing 
out of the partnership alluded to. And he often speaks of the 
kindness of his fellow-citizens in thus enabling him to ac- 
complish one of the most desirable objects of his life. He was 
appointed postmaster again by President Lincoln, and removed 
by President Johnson. He has, since the death of Robert 
Morrisson, been the earliest settler with a family now living in 
Richmond. His wife died April 28, 1871. 

The children of Achilles and Beulah Williams who lived to 
maturity, were Susan, wife of David Osborn, of Ohio; Joseph ; 
Rebecca, wife of Thaddeus Wright; Zalinda, who married 
Dr. Wilson Hobbs, of Carthage, Ind.; Robert; Martha, who 
married Milton Yeo, of Ohio; Sarah, wife of Benj. Webb; 
and Caroline, wife of Charles C. Dennis, of Indianapolis. 
Robert died in 1861 ; Rebecca and Martha in 1866. 

Thomas K. Young, born in Augusta Co., Va., January 23, 
1817, removed in 1833 from Ohio to this county with his 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 441 

father, who settled about 1 J miles west of the town of Boston, 
where P. Shidler now resides. Thomas commenced teaching 
school at the age of 18, and was engaged alternately in teach- 
ing and farming for a number of years. He married Mary 
Beard, a daughter of Peter Beard, of Boston, and in 1848 re- 
moved to liichmond, and engaged in the grocery business, but 
returned to his farm in Boston in 1849. In 1851, he returned 
to Richmond, and resumed the grocery and provision trade, in 
which he still continues. He was for several years a member 
of the city council; and in May, 1867, was elected mayor, 
which office he filled acceptably for the regular term of two 
years. He had six children, besides obe who died in infancy, 
namely : Augustus B., a practicing lawyer in liichmond ; 
Charles W. and George F., partners of their father in trade; 
Peter W. ; Mary V., and Dora B. 

John Yaryan was born at Knoxville, Tenn., and removed, 
in the fall of 1816, with his father, to the south part of Wayne 
Co., Ind., which was in 1819 cut ofi* by the formation of Union 
county. He studied law with Judge James Perry in 1841-42, 
and commenced practice in Liberty. He was in 1846 elected 
a representative in the legislature from Union county, and 
subsequently to the senate. In 1858, he removed to Rich- 
mond, where he has since been engaged in his profession. 



LODGES IN RICHMOND. 

Webb Lodge, No. 24, F. & A. M. Charter dated Oct. 1823. 
Officers— Wimum Pugh,'W. M. ; J. R. Mendenhall, S. W.; 
Wm. Vaughan, J. W. ; John Suffrins, Treas. ; John C. Kib- 
bey, Sec'y; Samuel Evans, S. D.; Wm. M. Doughty, J. D. 
This Lodge was instituted at Centerville, jSTov. 7, 1823, by 
George L. Murdock, M. W. G. M. P. T. ; Bartholomew 
McCleary, Sen., G. W. P. T.^; John Hawkins, Jun., G.W. P. T. ; 

Trowbridge, Gr. Treas. ; Wm. Thomas, Gr. Sec. ; Aaron 

Delabar, Gr. Sen. Deacon ; G. W. Kemble, Gr. Jun. Deacon ; 
James B. Ray, Gr. Tyler, Marshal ; Philip Mason, Philip Van- 
dergrifF, Wm. Youse. 

This lodge met alternately at Centerville and Richmond, 
31 



442 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

until 1833, when a charter was granted to Samuel Fleming, 
John Finley, and "Wm. S. Addleman, to be held at Kiclimond. 
Present officers — Daniel W. Johnston, W. M. ; Charles E. Mar- 
lett, S. "W. ; Le Roy Land, J. W. ; John J. Roney, Treas, ; S. 
C. Byer, Sec'y; C. A. Hatch, S. D. ; Wm. P. Sparks, J. D. ; 
Edward Woolverton, Tyler. Number of members, about 100. 

Richmond Lodge, No. 196, F. & A. M. Chartered May 28, 
1856. Charter members — Wm. B. Smith, Wm. Sinex, Wm. F. 
SpinniDg, Lewis Burk, John W. Griffin, T. J. Ferguson, Wm. 
L. Farquhar, Joseph Thatcher, John Elderkin, John Finley, 
John Sufirins. First officers — Wm. B. Smith, W. M. ; Wm. 
Sinex, S. W. ; Wm. F. Spinning, J. W. ; Lewis Burk, Treas.; 
J. W. Griffin, Sec'y; Charles Fisk, S. D. ; Henry Staley, J. D. 
Present officers — R. W. Deely, W. M. ; Chas. A. Bates, S. W. ; 
Cornelius Ratliff, J. W. ; John Suffrins, Treas. ; J. A. Unthank, 
Sec'y; A. S. Reed, S. D. ; J. H. Stinson, J. D. ; Harvey Sto- 
ver, Tyler. Number of members, about 80. 

Whitewater Lodge, No. 41, L O. 0. F., was instituted May 
1, 1847. Charter members — W. P. Wilson, Edwin Irwin, Se- 
date Bickmore, Thomas Vickers, W. L. Farquhar. First offi- 
cers— W. P. Wilson, N. G. ; Sedate Bickmore, V. G.; Edwin 
Irwin, R. S. ; Thomas Vickers, Treas. Present officers — Henry 
R. Downing, N. G. ; Frank K. Hess. V. G.; John F. Kuhl- 
man, R. S. ; Saul G. Dugdale, P. G., Treas. ; Edward Bellis, 
P. G., Per. Sec'y. Original number of members, 11 ; present 
membership, 160. Present resources, $17,500. 

Hermann Lodge, No. 199, I. O. O. F., was organized May 
14, 1858. Charter members — John H. Popp, Charles Leive, 
Anton Egh, Joseph Schluter, John M. Hamann, Charles Hoel- 
scher, Jacob Goehner, John Schumann, Engelbert Wessner, 
Louis Runge, Henry Kruvel. P^irst officers — John H. Popp, 
N. G.; Henry Kruvel, V. G. ; Joseph Schliter, R. S.; Jacob 
Goehner, Treas.; , Per. Sec. Present officers — Mar- 
tin Eckerle, N. G.; Adolf Weisbrod, V. G. ; Henry Bartel, 
R. S. ; John Schumann, Treas.; Henry G. Knopf, Per. Sec'y. 
Original number of members, 11 ; present membership, 103. 

Woodward Lodge, No. 212, 1, O. O. F., was organized Aug. 
30, 1859. Charter members—^. C. Pyle, Wm. W. Foulke, O. 
H. P. Little, 0. H. Sbearon, Miles J. Shinn, P. G., D. P. 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 443 

Graves, W. P. Wilcoxen, T. J. Newby. First officers— E. C. 
Pyle, K G.; Wm. W. Foulke, V. G. ; A. W. Mendenhall, 
R. S. ; O. H. P. Little, Treas. ; O. H. Shearon, Per. Sec'y. 
Present officers — Enos Geary, ^N". G. ; John M. Hinton, V. G. ; 
Wm. Coddingtou, R. S. ; James Williams, Treas. ; E. H. Con- 
kle, Per. Sec'y. Original number of members, 43; present 
membership, 205. 

Richmond Lodge, No. 254, 1. O. O. F., was organized March 
12, 1866. Charter members — Peter Johnson, W. W. Dudley, 
Oran Perry, J. R. Woods, J. R. Weist, E. H. Strattan, J. H. 
Mclntyre, M. M. Lacy, M. E. McMeans, A. S. Johnson, G. 
W. Benton, J. J. Russell, B. J. Miller, James Skinner, Joshua 
Hunt, Philemon Dickinson, J. E. Rogerson, J. P. Ilifi". First 
officers— :i. R. Woods, N. G. ; M. M. Lacy, V. G.; M. E. 
McMeans, R. S.; J. R. Weist, Treas.; J. J. Russell, Per. 
Sec'y. Present officers— R. C. Weller, N. G. ; C. E. Zimmer- 
man, Y. G.; S. B. Williamson, R. S.; W. P. Wilson, Treas.; 
J. R. Milliken, Per. Sec'y. Number of members at the end 
of the first quarter, 66; present membership. 111. 

Harmonia Encampment, No. 75, I. 0. O. F., was organized 
Feb. 8, 1866. Charter members — Charles Leive, Jacob Goeh- 
ner, Christian Shulz, Gottleib Lichtenfels, Henry Kruvel, 
Louis Meyer, J. H. Scheppmann, Anton Bescher, Gottleib 
Weidner, Baltasar Bescher, P. S. Hoffmann, Louis Knopf, 
Louis Runge, Anton Egli, Sales Minner, Isaac Shire. First 
officers — P. S. Hoifmann, C. P. ; Charles Leive, H. P. ; Louis 
Knopf, S. W.; Louis Runge, J. W.; Louis Meyer, Scribe; An- 
ten Bescher, Treas. Present officers — Jacob Noss, C. P. ; Henry 
Kehlenbunck, H. P.; John E. Hugo, S. W.; John Hoffmann, 
J. W. ; Jacob Weber, Scribe ; Adolf Weisbrod, Treas. Orig- 
inal number of members, 16; present membership, 46. 

Odd Fellows' Provident Association of Wayne County 
was organized Jan. 1, 1869, by 37 members of the order, at 
Richmond. By the payment of a small initiation fee, and at 
the death of a member one dollar, a fund equal to one dollar 
for each member is laid away to pay to the family of a deceased 
member. Four such payments have been made, amounting to 
nearly $1,500. 586 members of the order have attached them- 



444 



HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY 



selves to the association. The fee being so small compared 
with the beuelits, the association advises every member of a 
lodge to join. 




H,].; T, ll.Avs' Ihill, ;;irliiaun.l, Iiidiuiiii. 

The Odd Fellows' Hall, on the south-west corner of Main 
and Fifth streets, was built in 1868 and 1869, and is one of the 
largest and finest buildings in the city. It is three stories 
high ; fronts on Main street 52 feet, and is 100 feet deep. The 
lodge rooms are in the third story ; the second story is appro- 
priated to business offices; the first story is occupied as a dry 
goods store, by Iladley Brothers, in the east part; and in the 
west part is the bookstore of Nicholson Brothers. The build- 
ing is well finished throughout, and the entire cost of the 
property is about |40,000. 



CITY OF RICHMOND. 445 

Public Halls. 

Phillips' Hall, built by Abraham Phillips and James M. 
Starr, has been noticed. [See page 370.] 

Lyceum Hall, on the south-east corner of Fifth street 
and Broadway, was built in 1868-69, by a company, of 
which the original stockholders were : Hannah A. Free, 
Edmund Edmundson, John Griffith, "Wallace Fanning, Wm. 
Conklin, Ellen and Catharine Soft'rain, Samuel Maxwell, 
and Luther Crocker. The building, which is three stories 
high, fronts on Fifth street, 62|- feet, and is 90 feet on 
Broadway. It is a beautiful brick structure, and its location 
is an eligible one. Its hall, which is in the third story, is 
elegantly furnished, and has the capacity to seat 1,000 to 1,200 
persons. The post-office was removed, the first of January, to 
the east part of the building, recently vacated by the express 
companies. The west part continues to be occupied by Mes- 
sick & Dunham, dealers in cabinet furniture. 



446 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 



SUPPLEMENT. 

[A considerable amount and variety of matter was received 
after much more space than was assigned to the history had 
been filled. Wayne township and Richmond having' been 
last canvassed, they furnish most of the matter of these sup- 
plementary pages. Omissions in a few other townships are 
here supplied.] 

Dry Goods Merchants. — Ralph A. Paige, in 1847, com- 
menced the mercantile business, Avhich he still continues at 
the south-west corner of Main and Marion streets. He is said 
to have been longer continuously in trade, from the present 
time past, than any other dry goods merchant in the city. 

Wm. Petchel, in 1847, the same year as Mr. Paige, com- 
menced the same business, on north side of Main street, be- 
tween Front and Pearl, and has for ten years past occupied 
his present place, 246 Main street. 

Joshua W. Haines, in January, 1851, bought of John 
Haines his stock of goods, and still continues an extensive 
trade, south side of Main street, near Pearl. 

Richard Jackson, formerly in trade in Cincinnati and In- 
dianapolis, established business in Richmond, in 1853, which, 
either alone or in partnership, he has continued successfully 
to the present time. 

Daniel B. Crawford, with Wm. C. Scott, commenced the 
dry goods trade in 1850, at " old No. 8," now 190 Main 
street, and continued in the business about nine years. In 
1864, he resumed business, which he still continues at 242 
Main street. 

Emswiler & Crocker established, in 1860, a wholesale and 
retail trade in notions and toys, which is still continued by A.'^ 
E. Crocker & Co., north side of Main street, between Pearl 
and Marion. 

Andrew M. Miller came to Richmond about 18 years ago, 
and established a clothing store, and after several years en- 
gaged also in the boot and shoe trade, which he still con- 
tinues at 264 Main street. In 1864 he discontinued the 



SUPPLEMENT. 447 

clothing business, and engaged largely in the tobacco and 
cigar trade, which he still continues on Fort Wayne avenue. 
He is among the successful business men of the city. 

Grocers. — Clayton Hunt, formerly and for many years a 
mechanic in Richmond, commenced business as a grocer in 
1860, at 253 Main street. From 1866 to 1868, the firm was 
C Hunt & Sons ; from the latter date to the present, Hunt 
Brothers. 

Thomas Nestor has for many years been in the grocery 
trade. He commenced in 1853 on Main street, between 
Washington and Front streets, and for the last sixteen years 
has occupied his present place, south-east corner of Front 
and Main. 

George W. Barnes engaged in the grocery business, about 
twenty years ago, as a member of the firm of Lynde & Barnes. 
The business has since been for many years conducted by 
George W. Barnes & Co.; and, since the decease of his late 
partner, E. W. Yarrington, by himself alone, at 223 and 225 
Main street. He cures about 20,000 hams annually, and 
deals largely in flaxseed and grass seeds. 

Booksellers. — James Elder established a book and sta- 
tionery store, in 1846, second door east of the Citizens' Bank, 
and removed, in 1868, to his present stand, 255 Main street. 
He is the oldest bookseller in the city. 

Timothy and John jSTicholson, from ^N'orth Carolina, suc- 
ceeded Wm. E. Smith, in 1860, in the book trade. Since the 
year 1869, they have occupied their present spacious store- 
room in the Odd Fellows' building, where they are pursuing 
an extensive trade in books and stationery. They have also 
a book-bindery. 

Oliver White, in 1866, engaged in the book trade, with W. 
H. Lanthurn. After the withdrawal of the latter, John E. 
Hale became a partner. The business has since been con- 
tinued under the firm name of O. White & Co. until the 
present time. [Mr. White retired on the 1st of January, 
1872 ; and the business is conducted by J. E. Hale & Co., at 
the same place, on Main street, between Franklin and Fifth.] 

Charter Oak Pork House. — This establishment was com- 
menced in the winter of 1853-4, by William Wiggins and 



448 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Wm. S. Reid, for buying and slaughtering pork. On the 
death of Mr. Wiggins soon after, Jeremy Man sur joined Mr. 
Reid. Mansur & Reid carried on the business until 1861 or 
1862, when Mr. Mansur retired, and G. W. Vanneraan, C. C. 
Beeler, and John P, Smith became partners of Mr. Reid ; 
since which time the business has been continued under the 
firm name of Vanneman, Reid & Co. In 1867, this estab- 
ment took the name of " Charter Oak Pork House." It has 
the capacity to slaughter and take care of about 900 hogs a 
day, or about 20,000 in a season, lasting about 20 days. The 
average number actually handled within the last three years, 
prior to 1870, was about 14,000 a year, and the value of the pork 
annually slaughtered and sold, about $250,000. This establish- 
ment was a few years ago destroyed by fire, but was promptly 
rebuilt. Nearly 20,000 were slaughtered in 1870, and in the 
season of 1871, 20,638. 

Gas Works. — In July, 1854, a charter was obtained by 
Charles Collier for the Richmond Gas Light and Coke Com- 
pany. The company was organized in June, 1855, with a 
capital of $25,000. Its stockholders were Charles Collier, 
Robert Morrisson, Wm. Cain, John T. Plummer, and Wm. 
R. Webster. John T. Plummer was its first president; Wm. 
R. Webster, secretary ; Wm. Cain, treasurer. The works 
were built by Charles Collier, and completed in December, 
1855. In December, 1856, they were leased to Starr & White, 
[James M. Starr and Benj. C. White,] who carried on the 
business for about thirteen years. A new charter was granted 
in February, 1870, for the term of five years. James M. Starr, 
president; Benj. Starr, secretary. These works supply 91 
street lamps, and upward of 700 private consumers. The re- 
ceipts for gas in 1870 were about $19,000. 

Planing Mill, etc. — William Cain, for many years a lum- 
ber dealer in the city, built, in 1870, with his sons, T. P. and 
William, a planing mill on Fort Wayne avenue, where, in 
connection with the lumber trade, they manufacture sash, 
blinds, flooring, scrolls, moldings, etc. 

Steam Bakery. — Daniel K. & Joseph S. Zeller, in 1866, 
succeeded Bradbury, Strattan & Co., in the stea^n bakery on 
Sixth street, and in 1869 erected the building they now oc- 



SUPPLEMENT. 449 

cupy, ISTos. 357 and 859, where they bake the various articles 
in the baker's line, but more especially crackers, of which 
they make about 35 barrels a day, [B. F. Crawford, proprie- 
tor of Whitewater Mills, became a partner of the Zellers the 
first of January, 1872.] 

Hotels. — The Huntington House, elsewhere noticed, has re- 
cently been.again repaired and improved, and is at present occu- 
pied by Joseph H. Githens. 

The Tremont House, corner of Main and Fifth streets, built 
by Charles W. Starr, in 1838, was for several years kept as the 
"Starr House," by Maria Hurlbut, and from 1846 to 1854, by 
its owner, C. "VV. Starr. It has for several years past been 
kept by its present proprietor, John Elliott. 

The Avenue House, on Fort Wayne avenue, near the rail- 
road depot, was erected, in 1864, by Jacob Goehner. Himself 
and Gottleib Lichtenfels were its first proprietors. In 1869, it 
was re-opened by Joseph H. Githens and Henry Ricks. In 
April, 1871, Mr. Githens was succeeded by its present proprie- 
tor, J. B. Curtis. 

The Phillips House, on North Marion street, near Main, was 
opened in 1871, as a hotel, by J. S. Nixon. 

Cascade Garden and Nursery. — Edward Y. Teas came to 
Richmond in 1863, and commenced the business of nursery- 
man and florist, which he continues to carry on successfully. 
Besides cultivating: a vast varietv of fruit and ornamental 
trees, vines, flowering plants and shrubs, he imports many 
trees, plants, and seeds, and supplies the nursery and flower 
trade in many of the states. His ofiice and greenhouses are 
at 255 South Pearl street; his nursery, one mile south, on the 
Liberty turnpike ; and his seed store and horticultural depot, 
at 295 Main street. 

Gardner Mendenhall resides one mile and a half east from 
Richmond, on a highly cultivated piece of land, on which are 
a nursery and a greenhouse. His grounds are tastefully laid 
out and ornamented, and his residence is styled, and not 
inappropriately, " Sylvan Heights." 

Richmond Medical and Surgical Sanitarium. — This institu- 
tion is about a mile south-east from the city. A school called 
"Green Mount College" was established here by John 
31 



450 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

Haines, and continued for about five years. It was then sold 
to Dr. James E. Gross, wiio fitted it up for a water cure, 
styled " Green Mount Retreat," and occupied it as such for 
about five years, having greatly improved the grounds and 
buildings. This property has recently been purchased by Dr. 
E. Small, of Boston, Mass., and elegantly fitted up; and is to 
be devoted, in future, to the medical and surgical treatment 
of diseases peculiar to women. It is a healthful and inviting 
home for the invalid. 



ABINGTON. 
[The following supplies an omission in the town of Abington.] 

The first resident physician that practiced in the township 
was W. J. Matchett, in 1828. He was succeeded by James 
Ruby, who practiced some ten or twelve years ; within which 
period, he took into partnership a former student of his, 
John M. Swallow, who is said to have had a very extensive 
practice, and died in 1849, at the early age of thirty-three. 
After him came Dr. John Cleveland, who also is said to have 
been a successful practitioner, now residing at Centerville. 
He was followed by Moses G. Mitchell, of Ohio, now a Uni- 
versalist preacher, residing in Abington. Present physicians — 
John Q. A. Robbins, and James E. Swallow, son of John M. 
Swallow, above mentioned. 

The first wagon-maker was John Gilbert ; the next, William 
Harp. The present ones are the four Green brothers, Thomas, 
Tiiaddeus, Daniel, and Charles. Present blacksmiths — Thomas 
Stevens, Caswell Hollar, and Moses Mitchell. Harness- 
makers — Samuel and Frank^Lell. Carpenters — Andrew Hunt, 
Ferdinand and Harrison Weber. Shoemaker — Daniel Jen- 
nings. 



SUPPLEMENT. 451 



GREEN. 



[The following was omitted in the history of Green township.] 

In the enumeration of the children of John Lewis, the 
name of Joseph was omitted. It should have followed that 
of Sarah. Besides those named were four, none of whom 
passed the period of childhood. 

George D. McPhersox was born in Stokes county, North 
Carolina, in 1789; was married, in 1814, to Charity Locke 
(still living), daughter of a Revolutionary captain ; moved to 
Warren county, Ohio, and thence to Green township, Wayne 
county, Indiana, in 1825. In 1843, he removed to Iowa, 
where he now resides. He has six children : Joseph W., who 
married Sarali Lenington; was a merchant at Economy; 
moved to Iowa in 1856 ; is a Methodist minister, and has ten 
children; of whom three sons were wounded in the Union 
army, and one was a member of the legislature. Lucretia 
married Phenton Riley; twelve children. Abigail married 
Samuel Lenington; both dead; four children. John, twice 
married, resides in Marshall county ; twelve children. linth, 
twice married ; now deceased ; two children. Elizabeth, wife 
of Rufus K. Mills, resides in Randolph county ; three children. 



JACKSON. 

[The following should have been inserted among the sketches of citi- 
zens of this township.] 

John Boyd, son of Samuel Boyd, Sen., settled, in 1812, on 
Green's Fork, two miles east of the present town of Jackson - 
burg. He married, in 1819, Susan Scott, daughter of Alexan- 
der Scott, and is the father of thirteen children : Samuel S., 
Sarah A., Nelson, Cynthia, who died in infancy; William A., 
who, as Major of the 84th Indiana volunteers, was killed in 
the late war, at Tunnel Hill, Georgia ; Eliza J., John F., 
James W., Joseph L., a private soldier in the 57th Indiana 
volunteerp, who died soon after the battle of Pittsburg Land- 
ing, from exposure in the field ; Oliver C, Mary, Martha, and 
Susan ; all of whom were married, except Oliver C, who still 



452 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 

resides with his parents. In 1857, John Boyd sold his farm 
and removed to Dublin, where he and his wife now reside, 
aged, respectively, 82 and 71 years. Fonr of his sons and two 
sons-in-law enlisted in the Union army during the late war; 
and three of the number, two sons and one son-in-law, laid 
down their lives in defense of their country. 

William B. Enyeart was born in Butler county, Ohio, in 
1820, and came to Cambridge City in 1847, about the time 
of the completion of the Whitewater Valley Canal. He was 
one of the firm of Port & Enyeart elsewhere mentioned as 
having established the wholesale grocery trade. [Page 249.] 
He has until recently resided at that place, where he was for 
many years actively engaged in several kinds of business, mer- 
cantile and manufacturing. He served with credit as a soldier 
in the war with Mexico. He was married, in 1850, to Elvina, 
a daughter of Wm. Port. Mrs. E. and an infant son both 
died in 1851 ; and in 1853, he married Mary Jane, also a 
daughter of Wm. Port. This wife died March 25, 1869, 
leaving three children, William, Thomas, and Sarah F. Mr. 
Enyeart married, January 22, 1871, for his third wife, Mrs. 
Martha Webbert, a daughter of Emsley Hoover, and relict 
of John Webbert, of Jacksonburg, where E. now resides, 
and is engaged in farming, stock raising, and the real estate 
business. He occupies a prominent position in the Masonic 
order, and has taken an active part in getting up the Masonic 
Mutual Benefit Association. 

Isaac Vore, from Harford county, Md., settled in the woods 
3J miles north-east from Richmond, on Middle Fork, on the 
farm now owned by Clarkson Strawbridge. In 1830, he re- 
moved to Richmond; and in 1846 to Dublin, where he died 
in 1862, aged about 79 years. He had eight children, four 
born in Maryland, and four in Wayne county. The four 
younger ones died of putrid sore throat in the fall of 1830 
A daughter died some years later. There are now living one 
son, Jacob, for many years a merchant and farmer at Dub- 
lin ; Ruth, wife of Solomon Horney, of Richmond ; and Eliza, 
wife of Solomon Gause, in Waynesville, Warren county, Ohio. 



SUPPLEMENT. 453 



WEBSTEE. 



The board of county commissioners, consisting of 'Oliver T. 
Jones, Andress S. Wiggins, and William Brooks, at their last 
session, held in December, 1871, laid off a new township, 
taken from the townships of Center, Green, j^ew Garden, 
and Wayne. Its inhabitants have since given it the name of 
Webster, which is also the name of the post-office at its busi- 
ness center, now generally called "Dover," lying on the line 
between IS'ew Garden and Center. This little town, when laid 
out, many years ago, was named Fairfax, and is still so named 
on the latest county map. This township is about 4J miles 
in length, east and west, and 8J miles wide; containing an 
area of nearly 15 square miles. Of this territory, 6 square 
miles were taken from Center ; 3 from Green ; about 3f from 
JSTew Garden ; and 2J from Wayne. Chiswell Coggeshall was 
appointed trustee of the township; Samuel Roberts, assessor; 
-, justice of the peace. 



454 HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY. 



COEEECTIONS. 

Green Township — On page 224, Richard Lewis is said to have taught the 
first school. It was Joseph Lewis, as stated in his sketch, page 230. 

Harrison Township. — On page 233, Elias Scott is said to have been a 
son of John Scott, deceased, and to have died in the tcnvnship. Elias is 
grandson of John Scott, deceased, and son of James, deceased, and re- 
sides on the homestead of his father, as stated on page 242. 

Richmond. — Page 400. The number of bricks laid in the " Old White- 
water meeting-house," is stated at 66,000. The number was 266,000. 



TERRITORIAL AXD STATE GOVERNORS. 

Governor of the Territory North-^est of the Ohio. — Arthur St. Clair, from 
October 5, 1787, to July 4, 1800. 

Governors of Indiana Territory. — William H. Harrison, from Julj^ 4, 
1800, to 1812. John Gibson, acting governor, from 1812 to 1813. Thomas 
Posey, from March 3, 1813, to November 7, 1816. 

Governors of the State of Indiana. — Jonathan Jennings, from November 
7, 1816, to December 4, 1822. William Hendricks, from December 4, 
1822, to February 12, 1825. James B. Ray, acting governor, from Febru- 
ary 12, 1825, to December 7, 1825. James B. Ray, governor, from Decem- 
ber 7, 1825, to December 7, 1831. Noah Noble, from December 7, 1831, to 
December 6, 1837. David Wallace, from December 6, 1837, to December 
9,1840. Samuel Bigger, from December 9, 1840, to December 6,1843. 
James Whitcomb, from December 6, 1843, to December 26, 1848. [Lieut- 
enant-governor Paris C. Dunning, acting governor, to December 6, 1849.] 
Joseph A. Wright, from December 6, 1849, to January 12, 1857. Ashbel 
P. Willard, from January 12, 1857, to January 1, 1861. Henry S. Lane, 
inaugurated January 1, 1861 ; was a few days after elected L'nited States 
senator. Oliver P. Morton, lieutenant-governor, served to Januai-y, 
1865. Oliver P. Morton, inaugurated January, 1865, was soon elected 
United States senator. Conrad Baker, lieutenant-governor, served to 
January, 1869. Conrad Baker, present incumbent, from January, 1869. 

Members of Constitutional Conventions from Wayne County. 

Convention of 1816. — Jeremiah Cox, Joseph Holman, Jeremiah Meek, 
Patrick Beard. 

Convention of 1850. — John S. Newman, James Rariden, Othniel Bee- 
son, John Beard, son of Patrick Beard. 



INDEX. 



Abington township, history of, 144. 

Agriculture, early, 51. State board of, 112. First county agricultural society, 
111. Cambridge City district society, 112. Wayne county joint stock 
agricultural association, 114. Richmond horticultural society, 114. Rich- 
mond industrial association, 410. 

America, discovery and early settlement of, 17. 

Antislavery history : Log convention, and election of Jonathan Jennings to 
Congress, 94. Antislavery societies, petitions to Congress, and parties, 
96. Society in Richmond, 98 ; antislavery county nominations, 99. 

Auditors of county, list of, 88. 

Bedsteads, early, description of, 35. 

Benevolent associations: Children's Home, 408; Home for the Friendless, 409. 

Block-houses and forts, in time of war, 75. 

Boston township, history of, 151. 

Bread, different kinds of, in early times; difficulty in obtaining it, 39-42. 

Cabins, log, their structure and internal arrangements, 33-6. 

Center township, history of, 161. 

Cessions of western lands to general government, 19. 

Clark, George R., expeditions of, against the Indians, 18. 

Clay township, history of, 195. 

Clearing land, modes of, 37. 

Cooking in early times, 49. 

Corn, destruction of; squirrel hunts, 44; mode of harvesting and husking, 

54, 55. 
County, Wayne [see Wayne County], officers, lists of, 86-9. 
Crist, Henry, trial and execution of, 123. 

Dalton township, history of, 204. 

Dane, Nathan, author of ordinance of 1787, 19. 

Deer-hunting, description of, 46. 

Dogs, killing sheep, how detected, 48. 

Education and early schools, 68. 
England, colonies planted by, 18, 

Fare of early settlers, 39. 
Flax, culture and manufactures of, 55. 
France, claims of, to American territory, 18. 
Franklin township, history of, 211. 

Friends [see Histories of the townships and Richmond], imprisonment of, 
during the war of 1812, 76. 

Goods, merchants', prices of, and of farmers' produce, 62, 63, 77, 78. 

Green township, history of, 221. 

Grinding grain, different modes of, 40; difficulties attending, 53. 



456 INDEX. 

Harrison, "NVm. H., appointed governor of Indiana territory, 23. 

Harrison township, history of, 231. 

Hog hunts, description of, 45. 

Horticulture: Richmond horticultural society, 114; Cascade garden and 
nursery; Sylvan Heights, 449; Cambridge City flower and plant nursery, 
253. 

Household manufactures, 55; itinerant spinsters, 57; family dyeing and tailor- 
ing, 58. Tanning and shoemaking, 59. 

Imprisonment of Friends during the war of 1812, 76. 

Indiana, territory of, formed, 23; slavery in, 23; early criminal code, and 

division of, 25; admission of, as a state, and its boundaries, 26. 
Indians, leagued with the British, 18; lands ceded by, 23; alarms and murders 

by 72-4; Harrison's campaign against, 74. 
Innkeepers' charges fixed by county commissioners, 84. 
Internal improvements: National and turnpike roads, 107, 108; canals, 108; 

railroads, 110. 

Jackson township, history of, 243; East Germantown, 244; Cambridge City, 

248; Dublin, 262. 
Jefferson township, history of, 272. 
Judges, list of, appointed and elected, 87. 

Julian, Rebecca, letter of, on customs, &c., of pioneer life, 66. 
Justices of the peace, list of, 89. 

Lands, government prices of, and forfeiture of by settlers, 79. 
Leather, early mode of tanning, 59. 

Life in the Twelve Mile Purchase, from 1810 to 1814, 66. 
Log-rollings, description of 39. 

Louisiana, purchase and Ision of, and temporary annexation to Indiana 
territory, 24. 

Meats, different kinds of, eaten by settlers, 43. 

Michigan, territory of, formed, 24. 

Mills, eariy, 28, 31, 32; style and cost of early grist-mills, 42. 

Morgan's invasion in the war of the rebellion, 135. 

Morton, Oliver P., speech of, at "old settlers' meeting," 115; sketch of, 189. 

New England, soil of, granted to Plymouth company, 17. 

New Garden, history and early settlement of, 289. 

Newspapers, in Richmond, 90; at Centerville, 92, 172; at Cambridge City, 

257; at Newport, 297. 
North-western territory, formation of, 19 ; division of, 23. 

Old settlers' meetings: Meeting of 1869, speeches at, and exhibition of curi- 
osities, 115-123. 
Ordinance of l'!87, forming North-western territory, 19. 

Pastures, native, and wood ranges, for cattle and hogs, 44. 

Peace, treaty of with Indians, at Greenville, Jul}', 1814, 76. 

Perry, James, president of old settlers' meeting in 1869, 115. 

Perry township, settlement and history of,304-313. 

Pioneer life, reflections on, 64. 

Pitt, Hampshire, trial and execution ; body rescued by C. Eoddy, 124. 

Population of Wayne county, 138. 

Post-offices and postmasters of Waj'ne county, 140. 

Preachers in boots, in early times, anecdotes of, 60. 

Prices of goods, produce, labor, and land, 77. 

Property, real and personal, valuation of, and taxes, 139. 



INDEX. 457 

Raines, William, a boy, shooting of a wolf by, 45. 

Eecorders of county, list of, 88. 

Religious societies, 71. [See Histories of townships and Richmond.] 

Richmond. [See Contents, page xv.] 

Roddy, Christopher, rescues the body of Hampshire Pitt,- 125. 

St. Clair, Arthur, first governor of North-western territory, 20 ; his resigna- 
tion, 22. 

School-houses and schools, description of, 68. 

Settlements, early, by Holman, Rue, and others, 27; Hoover families, and 
others, on Middle Fork, and about Richmond, 28-31; on West Fork, 32; 
by Bulla, Davenport, and the Foutses, 32; Endsleys, Coxes, and Hunts, 
144. 

Settlers, condition of, after the war; prices of goods, produce, and labor; for- 
feiture of lands, 77-9. 

Sheriffs, list of, 88. 

Shoemaking, in families, 59. 

Slavery, ef{()rts to establish in Indiana territory, 24. 

Slaves,' fugitive, rescue of in Richmond, 100; case of Wm. Bush, 101. 

Sugar, maple, making of, described, 61. 

Taxes, how levied in early years; progress of increase, 139. 

Temperance cause, history of, 103-6. 

Tippecanoe, battle of, with the Indians, in 1811, 74, 

Townships, organization and officers of, 183, 184, 

Treasurers of county, list of, 88. 

Treaties with the Indians, 21, 23, 27, 76. 

Twelve Mile Purchase, date and description of, 26. 

War of the rebellion, history of, 126, &c. 

Washington township, formation and settlement, 83, 314. 

Wayne, Anthony, governor of North-western territory, 22. 

Wayne county, early settlement of, 27-30; its formation and orgnnizat:'on, 

27-30, 80;' location of the county seat, 81-3. 
Wayne township, formation of, 80, 81, 331. 
Western lands ceded to the general government, 19. 
AVheat, raising, harvesting, threshing, and cleaning of, 51-3. 
AVhipping, a legal punishment in Indiana, 25, 126. 
Wild animals, 46. 
Wolves, trapping of, 47 ; bounties on scalps, 83. 

32 



INDEX OF NAMES. 



NAMES OF PERSOXS AND THE NUMBERS OP THE PAGES REFERRING TO 
THEIR RESPECTIVE BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



Addleman, John M. 
Addleman, Williiim, 
Atlcinson, John, . 

Baldridgc, Samuel, . 
Barnes, John, 
Baxter, AVilliam, 
Beall, William, . 
Beard, John, . 
Beard, Mai'v, 
Beard, Isaac N. 
Beard, Thomas, . 
Beard, John. . 
Beeson, Benjamin, 
Beeson, Othiiiel, 
Bcitzell, Henry, . 
Bell, William, 
Bennett, Thomas W. 
Blanchard, William, 
Bloom field, Lot, . 
Bond, Jesse, 
Booker, Samuel N. 
Bowen, Joseph, 
Bowman, Benjamin, 
Bowman, David, 
Boyd, Samuel, 
Boyd, Samuel K. 
Boyd, John, 
Boyd, Samuel S. 
Bradbury, Ahner M. 
Bradbury, Daniel, . 
Bryan, Henry, 
Bulla, Thomas, 
Bulla, William, , 
Bulla, Joseph M. 
Buri^ess, James P. 
Burk, Lewis, . 
Burroughs, Charles, 

Chamness, William, 
Charles, Samuel, 
Cheescman, Nohemiah 
Coffin, Elijah, 
ComeV, Stephen, 
Commons, David, 
Commons, Bohert, . 
Comujous, William, 



217 
218 
194 

284 
337 
337 
105 
2.! 7 
237 
238 
325 
326 
327 
328 
285 
411 
411 
412 
173 
202 
173 
285 
285 
28G 
238 
227 
451 
2GG 
239 
203 
174 
338 
339 
158 
158 
413 
210 

210 
340 
286 
413 
174 
176 
174 
175 



Con ley, John J. 
Cox, Jeremiah, . 
Cox, Jeremiah, Jun. 
Crawford, Daniel B. 
Crawford, William, 
Cull, Hugh, 

Davis, Benjamin W. 
Davis, Jose]")h, 
Dean, Frederic, 
Druley, Nicholas, 
Dye, William, 

Eliason, Joshua, . 

Finch, Cvrus, . 
Finley, John, 
Foliind, Valentine, . 
Foulke, William W. 

Gaar, Abraham, 
Guar, Jonas, 
Grave families. 
Green, John, 

Haines, Abraham, . 
Ham, Jason, 
Hannah, Samuel, 
Harris, Benjamin, 
Harris, Obadiah, 
Hawkins, William, 
Hawkins, John, Sen. 
Hawkins, John, Jun. 
Hawkins, Nathan, . 
Hawkins, Amos, 
Hiatt, Benajah, 
Hiatt,' Jesse, 
Hiatt, William, 
Hiatt, Eleazar, . 
Hibberd, J.imes F. . 
Hill, Benjamin, . 
Hill, Kobert, . 
Holman, George, 
Hoi man, Joseph, 
Holloway, David P. 
Hoover, Andrew, 
Hoover, David, , 



INDEX OF NAMES. 



459 



Hoover, Frederic, . 
Hoover, Henr}', . 
Hoover, Henry, of C3ay, 
Hoshour, Samuel K. 
Hosier, Lewis, . 
Hoiigli, Jonathan, 
Hougii, William, 
Hubbard, Jeremiah, 
Hubbard, Kichard J 
Hunt, Charles, . 

Johnson, Ezekiel, 
Johnson, Nathan, 
Johnson, Nimrod H. 
Jones, Levi 31. . 
Jones, Oliver T. 
Julian, Isaac, 
Julian, Jacob B. 
Julian, George W. 
Julian, Isaac H. 

Kepler, John, 
Kepler, Peter, 
Kibbey, Jolin C. 
Kibbey, John F. 
King, Jesse, 
King, John, 
Kinley, Isaac, 
Kinley, Isaac, Jun. 

Lewis, John, 
Lewis, Joseph, 
Locke, William, . 
Lyle, John S. 



McClurc, Nathaniel, 
McCoy, Thomas, 
McGrew, William, 
Mansiir, Jeremy, 
Martin, John, 
Martin, Benjamin L. 
Mason, John, 
Meek families, 
Mendonhall, James R 
Meredith, Solomon, 
Miner, Noah W. 
MofRlt, Charles, 
Moffitt, Hugh, . 
Moore, Charles H. . 
Morris, Aaron, . 
Morrisson, Robert, . 
Morton, Oliver P. 

Newman, John S. . 

Ogburn, Samuel, 
Osborn, Charles, 

Parry, Joseph, 
Parry, William, 
Peel) e, John, 
Peelle, William A.. 



348 
348 
203 

2G7 
240 
299 
299 
422 
329 
149 

229 
268 
2G9 
180 
181 
181 
185 
185 
187 

241 
241 
194 
194 
187 
188 
241 
242 

229 
229 
312 
422 

350 

189 
. 330 

188 
. 350 

351 

. 28G 

351,352 

. 423 

270 
. 271 

352 
. 353 

330 
. 271 

424 
. 189 

190 

203 
313 

353 
353 
300 
191 



Pennington, Joel, 
Perkins, Samuel E. 
Perry, James, . 
Perry. Oran, 
Personett, Joseph, 
Pierce, Isaac, 
Plummer, Joseph P, 
Plummer, John T. 
Poe, James M. 
Pritchett, John, . 
Pugh, William, 

Railsback, David, 
Railsback, Enoch, 
Rariden, James, . 
Rati iff, Cornelius, 
Ratliff, Cornelius, J 
Reeves Mark E. 
Reeves, James E. 
Reid, Daniel, . 
Reid, William S. 
Robertson, Moses, 
Rupe, George and Henry 
Russell, Samuel, . 

Sailor, John, . 

Scott, Andrew F, 

Scott, John, 

Shearon, Caleb, 

Sliinn, Allies J. 

Sliugart, Geo. and Geo., Jun, 

Shute, Samuel, 

Smith, John, . 

Smith, John W. - 

Smith, Peter, . 

Starr, Charles W. 

Stigleman, John, 

Stonebraker, Adam 

Study, Henry, . 

Test, Charles H. 
Thistlethwaite, William, 
Thomas, John, . 



Thomas, Francis, 


303 


Tillson, Luther, . 


. 219 


Ulrich, John, . 


289 


Warner, Ithamar, 


. 437 


AVasson, Joseph, 


357 


Wasson, John Macamy, 


. 437 


White, J,ames, 


220 


AVhite, Jdsepb, . 


. 358 


Wiggins, Daniel P. 


438 


William,*, Achilles, 


. 439 


Williams, Jesse, 


194 


Williams, Jesse, . 


. 439 


Yaryan, John, 


441 


Young, Thomas, . 


. 160 


Young, Thomas N. 


440 



331 
426 
426 
426 
230 
288 
427 
428 
430 
192 
192 

. 150 

354 
. 192 

355 
. 355 

431 
. 432 

433 
. 433 

288 

192, 193 

. 194 

434 
. 434 

242 
. 435 

355 

300, 301 

. 356 

435 
. 272 

150 
. 436 

193 
. 289 

231 

. 193 

357 

. 301 



^i 



p 



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